


How To Catch A Villain

by Bloomedrose



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alpha Steve Rogers, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Angst, BAMF Tony Stark, Canon-Typical Violence, Endo-Sym Armor, Evil Steve Rogers, Hydra Steve Rogers, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Implied/Referenced Torture, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Omega Tony Stark, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Protective Bruce Banner, Protective Clint Barton, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Protective Natasha Romanov, Protective Nick Fury, Protective Pepper Potts, Protective Steve Rogers, Slow Build, Soulmates, Tony Must Be Protected At All Costs, Tony is an assassin, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, soulbond, vigilante tony
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:47:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 28,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24256117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bloomedrose/pseuds/Bloomedrose
Summary: In a world where orientation defines you, Tony Stark was raised to be an Alpha but that's not who he was born to be. His father, Howard Stark, knew his son couldn't take over Stark Industries as an omega, so the world knew Tony as an Alpha weapons dealer. Even after the Ten Rings nearly killed him and he became Iron Man, he didn't stop making weapons. Instead, he used Iron man to become an assassin, killing big-time criminals and dirty politicians, only helping SHIELD and the Avengers when universal threats came around. Very few people knew Iron Man's true identity.To the World, Captain America's story ended in the 1940's after sacrificing his life for his country and landing a plane in the ice. After failed attempts of Peggy Carter, Howard Stark, and later SHIELD, searching for his body, Hydra found him 30 years after the plane crash. He was brainwashed, along with his friend James Barnes, and both became Hydra's finest assassins.How did Tony Stark end up falling in love with his target?
Relationships: Harley Keener & Peter Parker, James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 18
Kudos: 97





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As tagged, this fic will have graphic depictions of violence. Fight scenes and kill scenes will be very detailed. This has been in the works for a little over a year. I do want to let you all know there will be a SEQUEL which is already in process. So this fic is the first part of a series and the sequel is very imperative in ending this story. Enjoy.

_SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA_ December 2014 _11:34 pm_ \--

__TARGET INFORMATION CARD  
Name: Chu Samuel  
Age: 52 yesrs old  
Place of Origin: Daegu, South Korea  
Position: CEO of Woojin Entertainment  
Marriage Status: Single  
Wanted For: Child Sex Trafficking_ _

“Give me the scope Jarvis. How many are we looking at, first floor?” The man murmured into his mouthpiece.

“There are twelve guards sir. Three at the security desk, two by the North entrance, four by the elevators, one in the men’s bathroom, and two right around the corner from you.”

“Turn on heat-seeking vision.” He mentally called the Endo-Sym armor to cover his underarmor suit. The symbiotes retracted themselves from his helmet and coated his body in the liquid material which solidified once he was completely covered.

“Okay, let’s have some fun.”

Tony used a blast furnace reactor from the suit to melt the lock on the South entrance doors. The right gauntlet shaped into a blade as he quietly glided into the corporate office building. He shot the guard on the left with his repulsor gun, making sure the silencer mode was on, and snuck behind the one on the right before plunging the blade into the side of his neck. As the blade retracted back into his armor, blood squelched out onto the guard’s collarbone, red blooming through the fabric of his uniform. There was light, classical music emitting through the building’s speakers.

“Let’s change the music up. Jarvis, play ‘Jingle Bell Rock’”.

“Not going for subtle this time, are you Sir?”

“Nope. I’m in the mood to spread the holiday spirit.”

Tony crouched behind a plant potted in a marble base and watched as the guards looked around frantically once the music changed. They pointed their guns around, fingers on the triggers, ready to shoot any unfamiliar stranger. He threw two smoke bombs out into the center of the lobby, his helmet already blocking any fumes from entering into his airways. Once the room was covered in a thick fog, he slid out from behind the marble fixture. He shot a repulsor blast at both guards near the North entrance. The symbiote armor formed a small blade, the liquid metal detached itself from the armor and pierced through the air, perforating the throat of a guard at the security desk. He did the same to the two other guards at the security desk, who were hacking by way of the smoke before the blades punctured one of their lungs, and the other blade was lodged in the second guard’s trachea. Tony ran through the smoke and pressed his back against the nearest wall, left of the hallway where the elevators were. He watched, simultaneously, as the door on the opposite wall began to creep open, then the barrel of a rifle peeked around the corner, an inch away from his face. He quickly snatched the nose of the gun before ramming the end of it into the guard’s sternum. He heard the delicious, sharp cracking of bone before the guard fell to the floor. He then took the gun and shot it, three times, at the other guard who was coming out of the bathroom. The men who were still alive, started firing their weapons into the smoke filled lobby, blindly shooting into the air.

“Alright, I’m wasting time.”

He aimed a few repulsor blasts at the space between the elevator doors and waited until he heard the three guards fall to the ground with loud thumps. He peeked his head around the corner, confirming that all the guards were down and unconscious...or dead. He couldn’t care less either way.

“Sir, there are a group of men coming down on elevator three. There are approximately seven of them and they are heavily armed.”

“Thanks J.”

Tony used the thrusters on the heels of his armor to jet towards the third elevator. He placed both hands in the slit of the elevator doors and forced them open. A one foot, heat-seeking missile was ejected from the shoulder compartment of the suit and tracked down the elevator shaft. He jumped back and waited as the missile exploded the entire shaft, the ground he rested on momentarily shook and he had to cover his face plate from the reflection of the bright orange flames. He waited for the flames to dissipate and the smoke was nearly cleared before he lurched forward and jetted up the space where the shaft once was. Tony flew to the top floor, where he knew his target was waiting, when Jarvis spoke up.

“Sir, I’m getting an incoming call from Ms. Potts. Should I answer the call for you?”

 _Shit._ He thought loudly.

“Yeah. Put her through J.”

“Tony, I’ve sent you five emails and texted you a million times. Why have you not responded to any of my messages?” Pepper sounded exasperated.

“Sorry doll. I’ve been...a bit preoccupied.”

Tony once again, used his armored fingers to pry open the elevator doors. There were more armed guards standing on the other side of the doors he just forced open. They all opened fire upon seeing Tony. He ducked into the corner space of the elevator shaft to evade the bullets, knowing that they wouldn’t be able to pierce through armor, but too many hits would indefinitely cause some damage.

“Doing what exactly; because I know for a fact you are not done working on the Laser Drones that the board is expecting you to present the schematics for and a proto-type of, at tomorrow’s meeting. If you were, you’d have sent me the schematics earlier this afternoon like you promised. And really Tony, you were supposed to send it to me last week but I know how busy you get with your side projects, so I gave you some leeway and I feel like you’re just taking advantage of my kind-”

She was rambling, and Pepper hardly ever rambled. That was his thing. So he knew she was very upset with him. As she should be since he didn't keep his promise, which was a reoccurring incident. He was never good at committing to stuff and that was another one of the billion reasons why she broke up with him.

“Okay Pep. I’m sorry, you’re completely right. Three hours, I’ll have Jarvis email you the schematics in three hours. If you don’t have them by then, feel free to-”

One of the men threw a sticky bomb next to the wall Tony had been leaning against. Tony took two seconds to assess the object that landed next to him before realizing what it was. He quickly pulled the bomb off the wall and flew out of the elevator shaft and into the swarm of bullets. The bomb was then dropped into the circle of guards, who were huddled together, right before it exploded.

“Tony, what on earth was that sound?”

“I, uh-Dummy blew something up. Gotta go clean up his mess. Love you Pep.”

Tony ended the call using the suit’s psionic link.

He used his repulsor blasts to shoot any other guards that were still moving, then flew down the corridor, searching for his next kill, Samuel Chu. He lightly landed on the floor as he approached the last door at the very end of the hallway.

There was a very large man standing in front of the wooden, double doors. His muscles strained through the cheap suit he sported and he wore a scowl on his face. He didn’t appear to have any weapons on him.

“You take another step, and I’m going to break your neck with my bare hands.”

“Oh, you say that with such confidence. Let’s see you put your words into action.” Then Tony stepped out of the suit. The symbiotes rolled off his body like water spilling off skin in the shower. It went into a compartment on top of his helmet that housed the symbiotes. Tony removed his helmet and gently placed it on the floor, beside his feet. He moved his limbs to get into his fighting stance.

“Hey, you look familiar. Do I know you?”

Tony shrugged nonchalantly.

“Unless we slept together in the past, then no, you don’t know me. And I highly doubt I’d sleep with a guy that has your face. Even shit-faced drunk, it wouldn’t happen big guy.”

The large man charged at Tony, bellowing as he went. Tony stood his ground, planting his feet firmly where they rested. He waited until the bigger man stepped into his space, ducking when the man tried to grab him, and then used his left foot to kick at the man’s right ankle. He quickly punched his opponent’s throat, then flipped back while placing both palms flat on the ground to hold himself up. Lastly, he swung his foot up in the air and landed a rear horse-kick at the center of his chest. Tony’s opponent hit the floor with an echoing thump.

He casually walked up to the still body on the ground, and ensured he was unconscious.

“Well, that was disappointing.”

Tony startled when he heard a crash come from the wooden doors ahead of him. He placed his helmet back on and called the armor to cover him before stalking towards the double doors where Samuel Chu was hiding. He raised his right hand and fired a repulsor blast at the door. He ignored the wood chips that flew around him as he walked over the debris. An older Asian man stood on the ledge of a window pane, gripping the black frames that had surrounded the glass.

“That’s a long way down Chu! You won’t survive that fall.”

“I think I’ll take my chances, I won’t die by your hands.”

Tony chuckled with a dark edge to it. “Who said I was going to kill you? I just have some questions I need answered.”

“You’re Iron Man, I know what you do to your victims, I’m no fool. I won’t be tortured by the likes of you.”

Tony grimaced at the sound of his cliché speech. “Is it me or do you watch too many karate films?”

The man released his grip from the window frame and allowed his body to fall forward. He clumsily fell from the ledge.

“Dammit! Jarvis, activate the booster jets.”

Rocket fuel blasted from the heels of the armor’s boots, sending Tony soaring out the window and down the face of the skyline. He quickly caught up to the man and gripped him by his ankle before slowing down the booster jets. He allowed inertia to steady them before jetting back up the skyline and dumping the successful CEO on top of his own desk.

The man scrambled to grab the edge of his desk as Iron Man landed next to the desk chair and stalked towards the man.

“Alright you slippery prick. You better tell me each and every location where you are hiding your underage sex workers.”

“I-I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Tony’s hands shot out and seized the man by the lapels of his sports jacket.

“I don’t have time for your games, tell me now and I’ll make this less painful for you.”

“I promise, you’re making a mistake. I don’t know what you mean.”

“Fine, we can do this the hard way.”

Tony used a heat laser and directed it at Chu’s temple, holding the man in place by the nape of his neck. He activated the laser, the hot beam scorching layers of flesh. The man in his hold screamed out in pain as he tried to pull himself away from Tony.

Tony continued his assault on his prey. “Come on Chu! Give me something!”

“Ok-kay! I’ll t-t-tell you please, stop!”

Tony let up on his assault and slowly removed the gauntlet away from his victim’s face.

“Alright, go on.” He drawled casually.

“I-there are three warehouses where the children work. I a-also pay them to make merchandise for my company.”

“So not only are you soliciting children for sex, you’re also using them for child labor. Good to know.”

“I pay those kids good money!! If it wasn’t for me, they’d be orphans, homeless, or dead on the streets!”

“Listen, I’m not going to sit here and try to convince you the importance of consent and freedom of choice, I have another job to do. And I’ve got an angry ex-girlfriend who will castrate me if I don’t get it done on time. Just give me the location of the warehouses and I’ll be on my way.”

“Okay. Can I write it down?”

Tony nodded once and the CEO sat down in the desk chair and opened the middle drawer of the large oak desk. Then he scribbled three addresses onto a piece of paper he grabbed from the drawer.

Afterwards, he lifted the paper and held it out in front of him, his hand trembling while the limb stood stagnant in the air. Tony snatched the paper from his hand.

“Jarvis, pull up the electric bill for those warehouses and tell me the name and bank info that they’re registered under.”

“They are registered under a Emaseul Fuentez under a Bank located in Peru.”

“Very amateur scrambling your name up like that. J, trace any links to see if that bank is connected to Chu’s main bank.”

“There has been numerous cash withdrawals from Mr. Chu’s KB Financial Group bank account that matches the cash deposits to his bank in Peru.”

“Thanks Jarvis.” Tony then directed a deadly glare at the man next to him. “Just had to make sure you were telling the truth.”

Tony’s glare turned into a smirk when he saw the rich CEO’s face twist into horror at the realization of what was to come. Typically, the billionaire vigilante liked to toy with his victims a bit before executing them, but he was on a short schedule and the flight back to New York wouldn’t be a quick one.

The terrified man’s feet scrambled on the pristine carpet which was now sprinkled with glass. His chair wheeled away from his desk inch by inch, the wheels getting caught on the small shards of glass every so often. Tony slowly stalked towards him until the back of the chair hit the wall.

“Nice doing business with you, Chu.”

The symbiotes formed an 11-inch blade out of his right gauntlet. He grabbed his victim by the small, black tufts of hair on his head.

“Please, please, please. Don’t do this! I’ll do whatever you want me to, I can pay you as much money as you want!”

“Good thing is, I’m richer than you. And I don’t do this for the money.”

Tony pulled back his arm and swung the blade cleanly across the man’s neck, cutting skin, sinews, and bone like butter. He looked at the detached head in his hand for a moment with apathy before tossing it in a corner of the large office.

Then he quickly unlocked Chu’s computer by hacking into it and sent an email to Director Fury and local authorities, using the dead man’s account. The email contained the location of the three warehouses and what they would likely find in them.

He signed the email with ‘Yours Truly, Iron Man’, then flew out the window and down a floor. He burst through the door where he knew the security surveillance room was. Then he destroyed all the computers, recording devices as well as the storage devices with a few repulsor blasts from his other gauntlet.

The small fires blazed about. He looked at his work and nodded satisfactorily to himself. “Alright J, time to go home.”

“A job well done Sir.”

“Thanks buddy. I’d high-five you if I could.”

“The sentiment is reached, nonetheless.”

Tony smirked playfully before jetting out of the window he crashed through before and headed for Stark Tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posting chap 2 by Saturday


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied, I''m posting the first 3 chapters.

Strong, blunt fingers tapped against the starched fabric of blue, pinstripe slacks. It was only 10:15 in the morning and five consecutive cups of coffee weren’t doing much to keep Tony awake. He’s not sure if there was any drug on the planet that could keep him from dozing off at his meeting. He needed to move some part of his body in order to stay awake. He alternated between bouncing his foot up and down, tapping on his thigh, or twisting back and forth in his office chair. The board members didn’t even pay attention to his constant movements, as long as he wasn’t asleep. 

He snuck out his Stark phone, and hovered it underneath the large, mahogany table where the rest of the board members discussed what day they should release the new drones. 

_TS: Where are you rn?_

_Pepp: I’m in my office._

_Pepp: Aren’t you in a meeting?_

_TS: I need you to do me the biggest favor._

_Pepp: I’m busy Tony. You should be paying attention. That’s the whole point of attending the meeting._

_TS: It won’t take long. I just need you to pull one of the fire alarms._

_Pepp: IS THERE A FIRE!!?? TONY DID YOU START A FIRE?_

_TS: No, but if that’s what it takes to get me out of this meeting, then I will._

_Pepp: God, don’t scare me like that, and no you won’t. You can still go to jail for arson even if it’s your own property._

_TS: Well then do me the favor and you won’t have to see your beloved boss in handcuffs._

_Pepp: Tony...you only have about forty minutes left of the meeting. You can hold out._

_TS: Fine. But I’m not buying you any more expensive bottles of champagne._

_Pepp: I don’t care. I can buy my own. Now pay attention before I walk in there and take your phone._

✤

Tony scrambled out of the conference room as soon as eleven am hit. He wasn’t in the mood to kiss ass and definitely didn’t want to stick around alphas that had inferiority complexes.

Pepper was casually waiting for him outside her office, which was adjacent to his office. She had a smug grin on her face.

“Didn’t stick around for small talk, boss?”

“Hell no. I hate being in a room surrounded by alphas. What can I do for you Ms. Potts?” He said as he walked to his office door, turning around to face her.

“I wanted to remind you it’s time to take your shot again. It’s been two weeks.”

“Great. Thanks for reminding me because I completely forgot.”

Pepper smirked knowingly. “That’s why you need me.”

“I do, you shouldn’t hold it over my head though.”

“You might forget that one day too.”

“Never.” Tony said, smiling at Pepper as he reached a hand behind him to twist the handle on his office door.

“Oh right, you have a visitor waiting in your office.”

“Dammit Pep, why didn’t you say that before I-- _shit_! It’s you.”

Agent Hill waved a hand at Tony as she stood in front of the large floor-to-ceiling windows of his office. He noticed her lips pulled up at a weird angle as if she was trying not to laugh.

“It’s about time you got here, Stark.”

Tony caught a glimpse of Pepper winking at him before she turned around and strutted into her office.

“That little minx.” He closed his office door then strolled towards the small safe embedded into the wall next to his desk.

“Why are you here Agent Hill?” Tony asked as he put the combination in and opened it.

The woman crossed her arms before leaning against the glass. “I’m sure you know why I’m here. Two nights ago you were in South Korea.”

He pulled out a vial of fluid, a new syringe, and alcohol wipes from the safe. “Yes, I was. What about it?”

“Fury can discuss that with you. He’s waiting.”

“Alright, Patchy can wait a couple of minutes. I gotta take my suppressant.” He took off his suit jacket and un-tucked his shirt, bunching it up at the bottom. Then he wiped a spot on his lower back with an alcohol wipe after preparing the syringe, then injected himself with a shot mixed with an omega suppressant and alpha hormones.

“He’s been waiting since before your meeting. Get a move on.”

“I’m not one of your avengers so neither you, nor him, can order me around.”

“That’s because you failed the evaluation.”

“That’s what happens when you evaluate a man trying to cope with almost dying.” He snapped using an angry tone.

Maria looked completely unaffected by his response. “Are you done Stark?”

He put his clothes back in place and swiped his used materials off the desk and into a disposal bin. “Yep, let’s go see The Godfather.”

“There’s a jet waiting for us on the helicopter pad.”

“I could fine you. You need a permit to park your jet in my spot.”

“Next time, I’ll just crash into your office through the window.”

“Has Natasha been giving you pointers?” Agent Hill glared at him, before brushing past him and walking to the elevators.

They got onto a small jet which flew up to the large helicarrier. After landing in the small hangar on the helicarrier, the two of them walked towards the main bay.

Tony noticed Clint Barton approaching them, and when the archer met his eyes, he smiled brightly. 

“Hey man, what are you doing here?”

Tony shrugged casually. “I got called to the principal’s office.”

Clint shook his head knowingly. “What’d you do this time?”

“Saved hundreds of kids from a life of slavery and I’m still somehow the bad guy.”

“If you end up going to prison this time, I’ll break you out.”

“Thanks Barton, nice to know who’s on my side.”

“Sure thing Tin man.” Clint saluted before parading off to who knows where.

When they reached Fury’s office, Agent Hill briefly rapped against the door before she motioned for him to open it.

He slowly opened the door, peeking his head inside before strolling in. Fury had his back turned to him, looking at the screen of a very large monitor taking up most of the wall he stood in front of. Tony could see from a glance, it was news coverage of video footage showing a small pile of disfigured bodies that were found in the Chesapeake.

“You summoned me?”

“You left quite a big mess for me to clean up Stark.”

“What can I say? I like to get my hands dirty.”

Fury turned around then, the bottom of his black coat billowing as he did so. Tony had his chest pushed out and was prepared to defend his actions but deflated upon seeing the tiny smile pulling at the bald man’s lips.

“I was going to reprimand your ass but since you had the decency to destroy all the footage this time, I guess there’s no need for me to waste my breath.”

“Great, so I’m in the clear?”

“Not exactly. I’m sure I have told you too many times to count, that you _have_ to get my permission before you go out killing criminals. No matter how bad they are or what they did. ”

“ _And_ I’ve told you many times that I don’t need your permission because I don’t work for you.”

“You’re going to end up behind bars and I won’t be able to help you.”

“They’d have to catch me first, Director. Now if you excuse me, I have work to do and a date later tonight.” He turned on his heels, ready to walk out the door. He briefly looked over his shoulder to blow Director Fury a kiss.

“Then you better hope no one finds out you’re Iron Man. There are bigger things coming into play and you could end up facing some major consequences Stark.”

Tony presented him his picture-perfect smirk. “That’s part of the reason why Iron Man’s not an Avenger. Your super secret boy band is not so secret.”

With that, he walked out the door, leaving it open because he loved to let people watch him walk away. Then he decided to steal one of SHIELD’s small jets.

✤

Drinking always helped numb the pain. Tony started drinking at the very early age of 15 when he first went off to college. It wasn’t the first time he had been away from his parents for an extended period of time. His dad sent him to boarding school when he was seven years old and he stayed there periodically, until he was admitted into MIT. But of course, his boarding school had a strict no-alcohol policy and he hadn’t known anyone willing to buy him any. So the first party he went to as an MIT freshman, he got pissed drunk. The feeling had been great, of course until the morning after. But he was momentarily free from the mental oppression his father had conditioned him to. He didn’t care to pretend to be something he wasn’t. And when he was drunk and alone with a strong, attractive alpha, he was permitted to be who he really was. But he had trust issues, so he’d pay them handsomely to make sure they kept quiet about his true orientation. 

Drinking helped calm the urge to constantly be doing something with his fingers. The urge to build, create, _to fix._ He always wanted to fix something because he, himself, had so many things in his life that he _couldn’t_ fix. 

Then he met James Rhodes, who became his roommate during his second semester. Rhodey convinced Tony to only get drunk when he was alone, in his room, because even if he did pay someone, there’d be no telling if they decided to renege on their deal. Also, Rhodey didn’t fancy Tony having drunk sex with random alphas. Even though Tony quickly developed a reputation, there were still many ways an alpha could take advantage of him and it happened once with Ty Stone. Ty found out that Tony was an omega through another alpha that Tony slept with. He was upset that Tony never came to him for any ‘favors’ so he slipped something into his drink at a party one night. Luckily, Rhodey was at the party that night and saw what happened. He smacked the cup out of Tony’s hand before he could drink it, then proceeded to beat some sense into the other alpha. From that night on, Tony made sure to sleep with omegas, alphas, and betas so that no one else would find out he wasn’t really an alpha. The suppressants he had been taking since he was five years old helped to mask his omegan scent and kept him from having heats.

Since that first year of college, only Rhodey, Pepper, Happy, the Avengers, and some of SHIELD knew that he was really an omega. Every one of them, excluding his best friend, was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement. 

Rhodey found him in his lab, sprawled out on the futon cradling a bottle of gin against his chest. Only four people had access to his lab. Rhodey, of course, Pepper, Happy, and Natasha from when she was undercover as Natalie Rushman. Her access remained because he actually took a liking to Natasha, even if she thought he had too many character defects. 

There was only a fourth of the bottle left, he usually didn’t drink straight from the bottle but he had a habit of letting too many empty glasses pile up in his lab.

“Tony, come on man, what are you doing? We’re supposed to hang out tonight.”

Tony groaned as he compelled his muscles to move, trying to raise himself up into a sitting position, but slumped back down when his head began to feel fuzzy.

Instead, he lifted his left arm in the air, twisting his wrist to bring Rhodey’s attention to it. 

“I developed a new housing component for the symbiotes. Now, I can access the suit whenever I want.”

On both his wrists, there were two silver bracelets that were thick in their circumference. Without making any movement, the symbiotes crept from within the bracelets, forming themselves around his crumpled shirt and slacks until the armor covered him completely.

“Alright, real nice. We’re going to be late and you reek of alcohol. Let’s get you in the shower.”

Rhodey reached down to take the bottle from him and placed it on the floor. Then helped him up. Together, they trudged over to the shower that was in a far corner of the lab.

“You going to get in there with your suit on?”

Tony didn’t bother with a response to the sarcastic comment and commanded the symbiotes back into the bracelets.

“I’ll grab you some clothes.”

Tony shed the rest of his clothes off, before getting in the small, walk-in shower. The transparent glass revealed his nakedness but Rhodey had seen him nude many times before.

He let out a relaxed groan as the water hit his face. He certainly had too much to drink. He’d just meant to reward himself with a celebratory drink after completing the new housing component for the symbiotes, but a few sips became too many.

But who was he kidding? He'd tried to go at least three months without drinking and he couldn't even do that.

Tony started washing himself up when Rhodey came back with a towel and some fresh clothes. The steam from the hot water helped to clear away the foggy, dizzy feeling that encompassed his mind.

“So why’re you in here drinking alone? You told me just last week how good you were doing and that you might actually be able to quit. Did something else happen with you and Pepper?”

“It’s not Pepper, not really.”

“Well then what is it? I gotta say, I’m really concerned Tony and I’d appreciate it if you’d talk to me about what’s going on.”

“Besides the fact that I’ve been pretending my whole life to be someone I’m not and I can’t find a mate who loves me for me, I don’t even know what I’m doing half the time. I go around killing bad guys, pretending to be a hero when the weapons I make that’s supposed to protect people are being used for the wrong reasons. My whole life I’ve been pretending, pretending to be an alpha, pretending to be a good guy, pretending I’m okay and I’m none of those things!” 

“Tones, I think you’re just lonely. Pepper left you last month and you’ve been doing this whole solo act with Iron Man for a while now. Which you don’t have to, you can let someone else be Iron Man or you have a team of people willing to work with you. And I get the whole hero thing. _You’re not_ a bad guy Tony. Your weapons are allowing our country to have a better fighting chance against terrorists and other criminals. Because of you, our soldiers get to come back home to their families. And when you do find out other people are using your weapons for the wrong reason, you hunt them down. Tell you what, I’ll cancel our plans I made for tonight and we can stay in and have a _Die Hard_ marathon. We’ll order Italian. How’s that sound?”

Tony turned to water off and walked out of the shower. He gave his friend a long, side-eye glance as he accepted the towel that was handed to him. “I’m good to go out.” He said through clenched teeth. That’s why he refrained from opening up to people, they always took pity on him.

Rhodey shrugged his shoulders. “I’d rather stay in. Besides, I was just going to take you to a comedy show but I don’t think you’re up for it and I don’t want you killing my mood.”

He considered it for a moment. He certainly didn’t want to be around a crowd of people and wasn’t in the mood for a comedy show either. But he was stubborn and he didn’t want to let down his friend. Even if said friend was treating him and this whole situation like something fragile and Tony didn’t want that. Because the words ‘fragile’ and ‘alpha’ didn’t mix.

“Fine, but I get to pick the place we’re ordering from.”

“Deal.”

Rhodey went to the communal floor of the tower to pick out the movies and prepare the DVD player as Tony got dressed. He’d kept his bracelets on (they were meant to be worn at all times) and followed him upstairs. Tony pulled up a menu on his Stark Phone, of his favorite, casual Italian restaurant and picked out something for the both of them. 

Halfway through Die Hard 2, his burner phone started to vibrate aggressively in his pant’s pocket. He kept the phone on unless he was asleep. Rhodey was still going through the large container of his tortellini pasta. He quietly slipped away to answer the call, walking towards the bar so he could speak privately.

“Iron Man, what can I do for you?”

He never asked for his callers’ information. He came up with a nickname for them that he thought of in the spur of the moment. It was easier to do his job when everything was kept confidential. The ‘gambler’, which was his nickname for the people who hired him, spoke with a distorted voice through a voice modulator. 

“A group of scientists hired by Governor Sallie Jensen have been releasing a toxic, bioterrorist weapon. It’s been causing people of color in Southern Florida to become very ill and the number of deaths is continuing to rise. I need you to get rid of the Governor.”

“What about the scientists?”

“They’ll stop once she’s dead.” Tony heard the line click followed by silence.

He shoved the phone back in his pocket and glanced at Rhodey to make sure his attention was still on the tv. He slid back onto the sofa and grabbed a breadstick.

“Where’d you go?”

“Got a call to do another hit.”

“What kind of crime was committed?”

“Targeting a minority group with a bioterrorist weapon to lower their population rate.”

“Damn, well good luck with that.” Tony gave him an astonished glance.

“You usually try to stop me from doing my job as Iron Man."

“Yeah well, I realized you won’t listen to me so I’m not wasting my breath anymore. You’re going to do what you want.”

Tony playfully poke the older man on his side. “Finally realizing how stubborn I am, huh Platypus?”

Rhodey frowned at the tv. “I can’t hear the movie, hush.”

Tony tossed the Colonel a cheeky grin, then began eating his breadstick as he leaned back to pay attention to the tv screen.

“Bruce Willis was pretty hot back in the day."

Rhodey visibly recoiled from Tony and turned his torso to focus an incredulous gaze at the shorter man.

“What?! You have terrible tastes in alphas.”

“What do you mean? He was a total babe back then. Now...not so much, but just look at his muscles.”

“He’s average looking if anything.” Rhodey shook his head in disbelief. “You love your blonde alphas.”

He scoffed. “Is this about Ty? God, you just ruined the mood.”

Tony grabbed the remote from the coffee table and turned the volume up to eighty.

Rhodey tried to talk over the loudspeakers but he just raised the volume even more until it was all the way up to one-hundred.


	3. Chapter 3

Tony didn’t wake up until the late morning. He started dozing off towards the end of Die Hard 3 last night and Rhodey had already fallen asleep on the couch. So he let him stay there and went up to his bedroom after the movie went off. 

“Hey Jarvis, is Rhodey still here?”

“Colonel Rhodes departed at 7:23 this morning, sir.”

“Alright, we got work to do Jarvis. Powerup the lab.”

He went into the bathroom to brush his teeth, and relieve himself. Foregoing breakfast was usually his thing but he noticed a bag of cinnamon bagels on his nightstand when he walked back into his room. There was small wording written in black marker on the side of the bag.

_“You better eat these punk. JR”_

He smiled briefly. The only two alphas he didn’t mind taking care of him were Rhodey and Bruce. Reluctantly, he’d allow Pepper and Happy to do little favors for him even though Pepper was an alpha and Happy an omega. But the two of them were very busy keeping his company running smoothly. He’d hardly seen Happy much since he made him head of security, which he did so happily knowing the man was an omega. It was important for him to have a diverse company. The Board would never appoint an omega in a director position.

He walked down to the lab, munching on his bagel as he waited in the elevator. Jarvis had the lights on and all his monitors up and running. He could tell Dummy tried to clean a bit of his mess he left last night. There were still tools and wires scattered all over the floor and on one of the steel tables.

The bottle of gin laid dormant on the floor, next to the futon.

He walked over the mess and went to stand in front of the monitors on the far side of the lab.

“Hey Dummy, put those tools in the tool bin! I provide you with shelter, the least you could do is learn how to clean up better.”

He set his bagels down and pulled up a holographic screen. “Also, start a pot of coffee.”

“Okay Jarvis, show me everything on Governor Sallie Jensen. I want previous addresses, past relationships, news articles, press conferences, family tree, driving records, and especially her call history. Pull up her cell so I can hack into her text message threads too.”

“As you wish, sir.” Multiple profiles, news articles, videos, and audio files popped up on the holographic screen. Tony’s mind filtered through all the information as his fingers quickly flitted over the holograms. He mentally discarded any impertinent information and stored away any other information that might be necessary. 

By going through her deleted emails and her text threads, he was able to confirm that she had been planning chemical warfare. He even found a few emails between the Governor and the Head Scientist on their project, discussing the success of their plan to decrease the minority population.

“Jarvis, save her address in your database.” He looked down at his wrist to check his watch for the time, but noticed he didn’t put it on this morning. Then he looked at the digital clock hanging above the entrance to the lab. It was a couple hours past noon.

“Of course sir. By the way, you asked me to inform you if there was any more news about the mass appearance of bodies that were found. There is a news segment from ABC with new footage.”

He closed out the holographic screens and stretched his arms over his head until his muscles felt more relaxed.

“Alright, show me.”

The television in the far corner of the lab flickered on. It wasn’t holographic, it had regular wirings in the back and was a flat screen.

A video appeared, zooming in on a pile of disfigured bodies. The news report stated that there were seventeen bodies found, which was five more than the last pile of bodies that was discovered by a civilian.

“When were the bodies found?”

“A call came in to 911 dispatchers twenty minutes ago. The FBI have yet to arrive.”

“Guess I’ll have to tap into the FBI database later to see if they end up identifying any of the bodies.”

✤

  
  


Later that night, Tony had Jarvis check the Governor’s surveillance cameras, which were strategically placed around her beach house, to confirm that she was at home. 

When he landed outside her house, he did a quick scan of the area, making sure there were no noisy neighbors or passerbys walking around. He then prowled into her yard, ducking behind the bushes until he reached the back door. 

Unease filled him when he saw the sliding doors were already open. Why would a powerful politician feel safe enough to leave her doors open and unlocked if she had multiple cameras outside of her house? 

“Jarvis, give me a view of the Governor’s camera feed while we were in flight?”

“I am unable to access the last two hours of video. It seems as if the camera systems have been tampered with.”

“Shit, something’s up. Stay alert J.” He stepped lightly into the living room area, remaining alert as he surveyed the room. It was dark inside the house, the only light emanating from the full moon.

As he walked further into the house, he heard a soft thud from one of the back rooms. He raised his arm with his repulsor beam ready to fire and quickly crept towards the noise until he came upon another open door. The room appeared to be a home office with two bookshelves lined up behind a large desk and a lit fireplace on the opposite wall.

But the layout of the room wasn’t the first thing he noticed. His eyes flickered from the man standing in front of the fireplace, to the two individuals positioned behind the office desk. 

The governor sat up in a desk chair, head cocked to the side. Blood poured from the slash on her neck, cascading down her alabaster skin and onto her pink blouse. Her eyes were curved upwards, only showing the retinal blood vessels, her irises hidden behind drooped eyelids.

The man behind her withdrew a blade from her skin as blood dribbled off the edge of the knife. He directed his full attention on the man with the blade. There was a dark and sinister vibe coming off of him in intangible ripples. He wore an all black stealth suit, clearly made with kevlar material. His face was obscured with a black helmet and mask, showing only his eyes. There was a large, circular object attached to his back and the sole splash of color on his suit was a red image of an octopus-like creature at the center of his chest.

He aimed his repulsor directly at the man’s chest. It fired just as a bullet hit the gauntlet, causing the blast to graze one of the bookshelves instead. Tony’s head snapped towards the direction that the bullet came from.

The other man who stood in front of the fireplace, which Tony just noticed he was throwing files and paper into, pointed a gun at him. This man didn’t wear a helmet and instead had a similar mask covering his nose and mouth. He had long, brown hair pulled back in a bun. The arm holding up the gun was completely covered in some kind of metal and donned a red star on the upper bicep. 

Tony raised his other gauntlet to shoot back but he was hit by a truck and his body struck the floor with a resounding thud. His head pounded against his skull and his ears started to ring. The truck, no, the body on top of him began to move. Tony had just registered it was the man that killed the governor before he felt a fist collide against the side of his face. He was sure that his jaw would’ve disconnected if he wasn’t wearing his helmet.

He used all his strength to throw the man off of him, then scrambled to his feet. The other man had already recovered after being thrown to the floor and reached for the circular object behind his back. The object….or rather it was a shield, was launched at him. He only had a half of a second to seize the shield before it smacked into his abdomen.

He swiftly raised the shield up to his chin when the combatant rushed towards him and kicked a heavy boot in front of his face. The boot hit the shield instead but the force caused Tony to be pushed back onto the wall. Then the shield was snatched out of his grip and brought down onto his right shoulder with formidable strength.

Tony yelped out in pain as the symbiotes quickly reformed to repair the damage made to the suit. He used his other arm to blast the man in the face and successfully hit his target in the eye. The large man stumbled backwards, holding on to his injured eye. Tony took advantage of the opportunity to soar upwards, crashing through the ceiling to get away.

He waited until he was a few hundred meters in the air and fired three projectile missiles at each section of the house. He flew away once the missiles hit the house and caused an explosion. He didn’t want anyone to see him and knew the explosion would attract others.

He flew back to New York, having the suit fly on autopilot since he was in too much pain to maneuver it himself.

“Sir, my scans are showing that you have a possible concussion and bruising on your upper ribs. I suggest you go to a medical facility or call Dr. Banner.”

“It was probably from when that asshole tackled me to the ground. I’m fine though, I’ll just sleep it off.”

“Very well. I do suggest that you get as much rest as you can. At least 8-10 hours of sleep and avoid any caffeine.”

“Won’t be able to do that buddy. You and I have a lot of work to do once we get back to the lab.”

“Of course sir. I’ve already sent a message to ‘the gambler’ to inform him that the job is done.”

“Thanks buddy.”

“You’re quite welcome, sir.”

The rest of the flight home was silent. Tony kept running the whole scenario back in his head. The man he fought could not have been human. His strength was unlike anyone he’s ever fought before, and he has gone toe-to-toe with aliens, gods, and individuals enhanced with extremis. But his strength was different, and his combat skills were highly impressive. Even moreso, something about him felt oddly familiar. It was like a nagging thought at the forefront of his mind, yet the more he thought about, the further back the thought would drift from him, causing any memories to disconnect from his cognition.

When he touched down on the landing pad of the tower, he immediately commanded the symbiotes to retract into the wrist bands. 

Now that he wasn’t wearing the suit, all his injuries felt much more painful. He forgot he programmed a alleviative agent into the suit. He grabbed his left side which was nearly throbbing with pain and started to walk down to the lab. 

He stumbled momentarily, when his backbone screamed in protest. When the hell did he hurt his back?

Instead, he had to limp towards the elevator. No doubt he’d be one big ass bruise by tomorrow morning.

“Jarvis, where are the ice packs?” Tony asked as soon as he entered his lab.

“In the second drawer of the utility cart Sir.”

He grabbed two ice packs and bent them in half to activate it. Then he grabbed the tablet from one of the work benches and gently eased his body onto the futon in a supine position. He raised his shirt halfway up his chest and placed both ice packs on the side of his torso that was beginning to turn purple.

“Jarvis, pull up the visual from the armor of those guys’ faces. I want you to do a facial ID scan and compare it to any visuals you can find. Pull from traffic cams, facebook, twitter, DMV records, mugshots, FBI, CIA, SHIELD, anything you can find.”

“Sir, the facial recognition search has failed. There were no matches found.”

Tony felt his blood run cold. “That’s impossible. Run it again.”

“Search has failed. I still could not find any matches.”

“Well...fuck. There’s no records of them from any of the intelligence agencies?”

“I’m afraid not Sir. It is possible that they had the means to access the databases and erase the footage.

“Not dealing with the average Joes. We’ll have to figure out another way. In the meantime…” He started tapping away at his tablet, careful not to extend his arms too much, lest his ribs would start to hurt more. He did a general search for ‘a red octopus symbol’ on the web.

He wasn’t shocked with what he found because everything that took place that night started to make sense. But the unease that filled him when he saw the words ‘HYDRA’ pop up on nearly every link that was displayed caused him to hyperventilate.

“How-how is any of this...possible? Aunt Peggy and SHIELD took down Hydra. They can’t--

He stopped to take deep breaths. He couldn’t allow this to make him have an anxiety attack. The pain in his ribs became more intense with each heavy breath he took. He didn’t have all the answers, so maybe it was just a couple of punks trying to copy Hydra. He’d need to get more information before he took any action.

“Jarvis, get Clint Barton on the line.”


	4. Chapter 4

Tony was in his lab, working on the design for a new underarmour suit. His agile fingers worked rapidly over the hologram but his mind was fixated on something else entirely.

He recollected the conversation he had last night.

“ _Hey Barton. There’s something I need you to look into.”_

_“Dude, do you know what time it is?”_

_“Of course not, that's not important. Listen, I think SHIELD has some...files that I can’t access and I need you to try to dig into their database. I’m guessing whatever information they have is either highly classified and locked away or it’s not electronic. You might need to go into their basement and dust off some folders, literally and figuratively.”_

_“You know I’m not good at that hacking stuff. That’s more of Natasha’s forte.”_

_“Yeah, but Natasha is Fury’s little snitch and I don’t want him to know about this. I’m not asking you to hack into anything. If the information was digital, I should have been able to find it. You're going to have to dig through some papers. I’ll have Jarvis send you the playback from my helmet. You’ll know what I’m looking for when you see it.”_

_“Alright, I’ll look into it. Next time you’re thinking about me at 2 o’clock in the morning, send me a text instead.”_

_“Sure, I’ll make sure to attach a dick pic to it.”_

_“I’d hope so. That’d make up for it.”_

He chuckled at the thought of their light banter. Barton was one of the few betas that knew Tony was actually an Omega and the playful flirting ensued after he first found out. Of course, it wasn’t genuine on either part. It’s not that Barton wasn’t his type because, as Rhodey said, he ‘loved his blondes’. The archer was already accounted for with a beautiful wife and two adorable kids.

He was startled out of his thoughts when he heard his AI’s distorted voice. “Sir, Ms. Potts has entered the building, she is coming up the elevator now.”

He jolted at the comment and quickly swiped at the hologram, causing it to dissipate. Pepper didn’t know about Iron Man, even when they were dating, and he’d do whatever he could to keep it that way. He knew she would never understand, and probably would try to do the same thing Rhodey did when Tony told him. He and his best friend got into countless arguments over Iron Man, and a few times Rhodey used the Iron Patriot suit to try to stop Tony. Pepper would be afraid _for_ him, and he couldn’t fault her for that because he knew Pepper loved him and cared about him but he was mainly worried about how Pepper would feel about him if she found out. Would she think of him as a monster? Would she be afraid _of_ him?

Tony never envisioned himself as a bad person. He may have done some questionable things but he’d done more good and that couldn’t make him a bad person, not if the good outweighs the bad. And okay, maybe his line of work wasn’t the most sanctified job but he did what others were too afraid to do, because there are some people out there who are too terrible for even prison. Their money was too much, their power too big, their influence too abundant. Evading justice was exactly what those kind of people were good at, so he’d taken matters into his own hands. And when he’d first found out his weapons were being used by people who had bad intentions, he heightened his security, fired a whole bunch of people, and found out the only man who acted as a father figure to him, tried to kill him...twice.

“Hey Pep, you look absolutely radiant today.” He said when the impeccably dressed woman strolled into his lab.

She squinted her eyes at him with skepticism. “I’m here with paperwork for you to sign since you didn’t show up at the office this morning.”

“Oh, was I supposed to go in today?”

“This is why I send you emails Tony.”

“Come on Pep, you know I only check my emails once a week.”

“That’s very irresponsible of you as an _actual_ CEO of an _actual_ company.”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “I offered you a job as CEO and you didn’t want to take it.”

“I’m not giving you an out, especially when you don’t have any other obligations. Now here, sign these.” She dumped a heavy stack of paper onto his work bench, and where the hell did all of that come from? No way it could have all fit into her small briefcase.

“Some of these are the contracts for the vendors at the networking mixer this weekend and the re--” Pepper’s speech trailed off as Tony noticed her staring at his shoulder.

“Tony, what is this?” She grabbed his wrist and pulled until his stool twisted sideways. “That is...a very big bruise.”

He completely forgot he was wearing a wifebeater and still completely covered in bruises from the night before. Thankfully, the only bruise that was showing was a slightly purplish color on his shoulder.

“Uh, I fell yesterday. I was putting some wiring into the ceiling. It doesn’t hurt though.”

She lifted an eyebrow, then prodded at the discolored flesh with the tip of her polished fingernails. Tony jerked back, his rear end nearly sliding off the stool. 

“Oww, why would you do that?”

She crossed his arms in challenge. “Why would you lie and why aren’t you being careful?”

“It was an accident, I’m fine. Just give me a pen so I can sign and you can be on your way.”

Pepper smiled triumphantly and pulled a pen out of her briefcase. He grumbled to himself quietly, picking up the pen to start signing off on the sheets of paper.

He quickly scrawled his name across all the parts that were highlighted and pushed the stack towards Pepper when he was done. “There you go.”

She gently placed the papers back into her briefcase

“I do have other obligations. I just don’t tell you everything I do.”

“What, are you talking about your sexual conquests? Or are you in an actual relationship this time?” She asked with condensation laced in her tone, but he could hear a bit of jealousy too. He had to hide his slightly pleased smile before responding.

“No, that’s not what I meant. And of course not, there was only ever you. Now there’s no you and there won’t be anyone else.”

“We both know that’s not true. There’s someone else out there for you. You’re a brilliant, beautiful, and extremely talented man. You might even find a soulmate.”

Tony rolled his eyes after watching her leave. There was only a 1 in 10,913,816 chance that a person actually found a soulmate. Most people didn’t have one, those who did got lucky. He never thought of himself as someone who was lucky.

Once the elevator doors closed on the image of Pepper's back, Tony pulled up the hologram and finished what he was working on, until his AI interrupted him again. 

“Dammit Jarvis, what is it this time?”

“There has been another report on the mutilated bodies. Another mass of them were found in Brick Township, NJ near the coastline. Would you like me to send you the coordinates?”

“Sure buddy. I got time to check it out.”

  
  


✤

When Iron Man reached the coordinates that Jarvis sent, he realized there were no police or news vans anywhere. The sun was starting to set and the warehouses near the shipping containers looked to be cleared out as well. It seemed to be eerily silent about, the only sound he heard was the loud splashing of the waves, crashing onto the wooden docks.

“J, how long ago was the call made to dispatch?”

“Approximately an hour and forty-two minutes ago.”

“FBI should have shown up by now.”

He walked slowly, with caution. There was a large semi truck parked too close to the docks. It looked out-of-place. As he walked closer to the front of the truck, he heard a weighty thump.

He stepped lightly, making sure his footsteps were soundless as he lurked closer to the noise. 

The scene he found horrified him. It was a man tying cinder blocks onto the waist of a cadaver. There were two other cinder blocks, each one tied to an ankle. The load inside the truck consisted of a small mountain of more corpses, all piled on top of each other. From what he could see, some of the faces that weren’t covered by limbs were instead covered with large boils, and the color of their flesh was a diseased blue.

He was pulled out of his frozen stupor when the masked man whipped around, plucking a revolver from his gun holder and pointed the barrel straight at him. It was then that he recognized the masked perpetrator. The red symbol, black stealth suit, and funny-looking helmet should’ve been a dead give away.

The masked man hadn’t pulled the trigger yet, only holding the gun to him as a threat. He raised his hands in surrender. He had to be cautious against provoking the man into combat, since the last time they fought, he got his ass _severely_ kicked and being hit by a missile clearly didn’t affect the man either.

“I just want to talk, I’m not going to attack you.”

The other man was silent, both eyes and gun were locked onto Tony.

“Besides, I doubt your bullets will be able to pierce through my armor.”

At this comment, the man slowly lowered his weapon, before carefully placing it back into the gun holder, keeping his gaze on Tony as he did so.

“I’m curious,” Tony said as he lowered his hands. “As to how you survived that explosion.”

“I dodged your missiles.”

Tony quirked an unbelieving eyebrow. “You _dodged_ them?”

He was met with a slight shrug for a response.

“Who are y-”

“GET DOWN!”

Tony was thrown to the ground, a mighty force striking him at the waist. He looked up after the initial shock subsided and found the other man crouched in front of him, his body nearly folding into itself to himself as small as possible. The shield that was previously hooked on his back, was now hoisted in front of his body, completely concealing its carrier.

Without having the time to form a thought and make a coherent response, a rocket launcher missile raced towards them and ruptured once it collided with the shield. Tony felt himself slide across the port, the armor scraping the ground before it was carried away into the air and flung into the water.

The impact of hitting the ocean water was much more brutal with the force of the explosion. It caused him to fall unconscious soon after he started to submerge into the frigid, dark waters.

When he finally came to, a pair of gloved hands blocked his field of vision. He swatted at them, realizing their intent was to remove his helmet. 

“Hey! That’s off limits. Haven’t you heard of consent?” He said as he looked at who the hands belonged to. There he was, the masked man, hovering over him. Except, the mask covering his nose and mouth was now missing and the helmet was the only thing obscuring parts of his face. Now, he could see the sharp outline of his jaw, his nose which had a very slight crook on the bridge of it, and his plump, pink lips that went along perfectly with his blue irises.

“I just saved your life, twice. I should at least know who you are.”

“Tell me who _you_ are and I’ll give you the luxury.”

“I can’t do that. I’d have to kill you afterwards.” His blue eyes gazed upwards, as if ruminating a thought, before meeting Tony’s eyes again after a second. “Then, saving your life would’ve been pointless.”

“Touché. Can you tell me who the fuck shot us with a rocket launcher?”

The other man’s face hardened. “Rumlow. He shot at you, not me.”

“Is that your friend with the metal arm?”

“No.”

Tony gave him a few seconds to elaborate. Instead, he kept his lips pressed together and didn’t say anything else.

“Okay. Don’t think I’m going to let you go just because you rescued me. I still have some questions. Then I’m going to have to turn you over to the authorities.”

Police sirens suddenly filled the humid air. His unmasked...assailant? savior?, jerked at the sound and went rigid. 

He slowly rose into a sitting position and rolled his eyes, not that anyone could see. 

“Now they come.”

The other man rose from beside him as well, standing and looking into the direction of the trees, where the sirens were coming from. Tony took the time to observe his surroundings. He noticed they were on a small beach, and it was completely dark out now, the sun having gone down and was replaced by the moon and the glowing stars in the sky.

When he looked down again to search for the unmasked man, he was no longer there.

“Fuck.”

The police sirens were starting to get louder, and he could hear multiple footsteps in the trees rustling the grass they trampled on.

He moved to stand up but a searing pain in his left leg spread through the rest of his nerves and shot up his back. 

“Ughn! Dammit, that hurts.” He tried again. This time, he ignored aching pain and was able to stand up on one leg, while the other hovered in the air.

A swarm of agents wearing bullet proof vests and protective gear ambushed him, all of their weapons aimed at him.

“FREEZE!! Put your hands in the air and don’t move!” Said one of the men who was brave enough to stand closest to him.

“Come on, give me a boost.”

He willed the symbiotes to act and the suit's thrusters were activated and he was lifted into the sky. Bullets assaulted him from every direction but he was able to get away unscathed, minus the leg that may or may not be broken.

As he flew away from the scene, he briefly scanned the area for any signs of the other guy but the only other heat signature he found was that of a small bird.

“Jarvis, did you find out why it took so long for the FBI to arrive at the scene?”

“I am checking a recently released news report. It appears that the Emergency Dispatch Control Center was held hostage before any calls were made. There were two casualties there, both of them were security officers.”

“Did they catch the assholes who did it?”

“No Sir. The criminals must have fled before the police arrived.”

“Something big is going on here J, and I don’t like it. Prepare the lab for me.”

“Another all-nighter, Sir?”

“Looks like that’s what it’s going to be, my friend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's short but I'll post the next chapter by Monday.


	5. Chapter 5

Tony nearly spent a day and a half resting after his last confrontation. Thankfully, his leg wasn’t broken but he did have a sprained ankle.

When he woke up two days later, he roused slowly, eyelids fluttering to blink out the stiffness in his eyelids. As his vision adjusted to the light and the blurriness cleared, he shrieked at the startling sight before him.

“Geez Barton! What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Clint Barton was on his bed, both legs squatting over his waist. His damn boots were dipping into the mattress and he had a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.

“I just like watching your pretty ass sleep.”

“Get. Off.” He pressed out through gritted teeth.

“Alright, alright. Calm down.” Clint climbed off the bed, his boots leaving small amounts of dirt on the crimson comforter.

Tony effectively glared at him as he moved.

“Here, I brought you some coffee to tame your morning irritability.” He grabbed a steaming, foam cup from the nightstand and handed it to Tony.

“Thanks.”

“Get up and meet me in the den. I found some information for you.” 

He finished off his coffee, gulping down the hot liquid despite its heat scorching his tongue and throat.

Afterwards, he hopped out the bed, carefully walking to the bathroom. His foot was feeling better but the injury caused him to limp.

He brushed his teeth and took a swift shower before going out into his grandiose walk-in closet. He paused when he saw his formal suit hanging up on the first hook. Pepper had it delivered yesterday and tonight was his annual networking mixer. He so badly wanted to call her to tell her he couldn’t make it. But he didn’t have the heart to back out of it. Instead, he threw on a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants before walking out of the room.

Clint was in the den, laying upside down on one of his couches, boots sticking up in the air as he stuffed his hand inside a bag of chips that he must’ve pulled from the cabinets. 

Tony leaned against the wall, putting all his weight on his uninjured ankle.“So what did you find out?”

The archer sat up while keeping a hand inside the bag. A couple of chips fell out of the bag and onto his stark white rug and Tony had to refrain from scolding him like a damn toddler. He’d just have to utilize one of his Roomba bots.

“Okay, so….the two guys you fought, SHIELD has had previous run-ins with them before. What was fucking creepy is that some of those papers I found were dated back from the late 1970s. I checked out the pictures SHIELD had, although they were pretty grainy and in black and white, it looked like the same men from the video you sent. They’ve been dubbed as Captain Hydra and The Winter Soldier.”

The men he saw in the women’s penthouse the other day were young, agile, and strong. They couldn’t have been more than thirty years old, so it made absolutely no sense that they could’ve been present in any pictures dating back to the 1970s.

“Did you read anything about their abilities, maybe something about a metal arm or super powers?”

“Nah man, no one has gotten that close to them and survived.”

“Was there anything else you found?”

“Oh yeah--” He paused to toss another chip in his mouth. “The Senator they killed was a member of Hydra.”

Tony started pacing the floor with a new found motivation. “You did great Clint, thank you, really. I mean, now I have more questions than before but at least I know where to start.”

The archer popped some more chips in his mouth, crumbs flying out as he talked. “If you’re going to go after these guys, you’re going to need some help. I can get the team together and we can do a thorough investigation.”

“No, I got this. I’m not going after them guns blazing. I need to gather more intel to figure out how to take them down first.”

“Stark, those men are dangerous. It’s safe to say that they’re Hydra’s top agents. Their track record is longer than the long list of people who were killed during the Battle of New York, and that’s only the list of people we have confirmed that they killed. I’m sure there are hundreds more who SHIELD couldn’t confirm the cause of death.”

“Trust me Barton, if I need anymore of your assistance, I’ll give you a call.”

Clint lifted himself off the couch, abandoning the bag of chips on the cushion. He deliberately walked up to Tony and placed a heavy hand on the man’s shoulder.

“Tony, I know you try to be independent and keep up this macho appearance to fool everyone into believing you’re actually an alpha, but it just makes you look pathetic dude. Don’t be stupid by trying to keep up an appearance. You’re not weak if you accept help from people, especially people who genuinely care about you.” 

With that, he walked out of the room, using the stairwell to make an exit. Tony was left standing there with a dumbfounded look on his face. Barton’s words felt like a wet slap to the face.

Barton didn’t know what he was talking about and he was a fool if he thought he knew Tony as well enough to make judgements on how he acted. He didn’t know the abuse Tony went through as a child, the conditioning his father put him through to force him to become someone he’s not, and never will be. His father called him a ‘sissy boy’ anytime he showed signs of weakness. Crying because he couldn’t have a sweet, couldn’t sleep with a stuffed toy his mother bought him, couldn't sit on his mother’s lap, couldn’t show her any affection at home or in public.

It didn’t stop with the name calling. His father would also beat him with a wooden stick whenever he showed signs of weakness or cried. 

His apathetic and fierce nature wasn’t just an act for him. He didn’t have a choice, he never had a choice. Weakness was _not_ an option. If he didn’t keep up with appearances, he could lose everything he ever worked for and everything his father ever worked for. And he worked too damn hard to get to where he was now.

He couldn’t even go a few laps in his pool to work off some steam because of his wounded ankle, so he’d resolved for a glass of whiskey instead.

✤

  
  


That’s how he turned up at the event, cheeks flushed red and slightly drunk. 

The mixer took place in an old Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. and was filled with small, round tables and amber lighting. Some of his more popular, public-friendly weapons were on display. Of course guarded by his own security that Happy was currently ordering around.

Tony walked into the room with his date hooked on his arm, immediately attracting the attention of all the attendees. His vibrant smile caused the entire room to fill with lively chatter.

There were politicians, army generals, police commissioners, security company CEOs, SWAT commanders, and other wealthy people he’d done business with in the past.

He spotted Pepper standing off to the side, chatting with a waitstaff. He sauntered over to her, putting some of his weight on his plus one to lessen his limp.

“Pepper, you look stunning, as always.” She turned her attention to him at the sound of his voice. Her photo-ready smile fell a little when she took in the image of the two.

“Tony, you brought Sarah...your hair stylist.”

He shrugged. “It was a last minute decision. But she cleans up real nice.”

The blonde, petite woman on his arm smiled kindly. “Thank you Mr. Stark.”

Pepper’s nose wrinkled when she caught a whiff of his breath. “You also smell like you spent the night in a bar.”

“Yeah, well I had a few drinks so I”d be able to chat up all these people you invited.”

Pepper caught his hand just as Tony was about to grab a glass of champagne off a tray from a passing waiter. 

“I think you’ve had enough to drink for the night. Why don’t we go mingle a little? Sarah, could you find Tony a non-alcoholic drink?”

Pepper watched as the blonde woman walked away towards the open bar. 

“You could’ve just asked me to be your date.”

“What’s the point in bringing a hot date if you can’t take them home with you at the end of the night?”

She rolled her eyes before linking her arm around his. Tony never had a problem letting Pepper take control throughout the time that he’s known her, especially when they were in a relationship. She was an alpha after all and much more level-headed than he was. 

“I’m guessing you're limping because of falling the other night, right?”

He smirked, knowing she didn’t believe the story he told before, but went along with it anyway. 

“The ever perceptive Ms. Potts.”

He remained in a vivacious mood as he greeted and conversed with his guests. He smiled when required, shook hands, and even laughed at horribly told jokes that were quite honestly offensive. His date stayed behind him or directly to the side of him, laughing and smiling kindly, while Pepper stayed on his arm and kept up the conversations.

His mood soured when he noticed Senator Stern talking loudly and laughing with a small crowd. He turned to his assistant.

“Did you put him on the guest list?”

She sounded just as surprised by his attendance as he was. “I did not Tony. But I’m sure he has friends here so maybe he came with someone.”

“Well, I should go thank him for coming.”

Pepper sighed heavily. “Don’t make a scene, please.”

He just flashed her his most charming smile and took Sarah by the hand, pulling her in the direction where Stern was socializing.

“Senator Stern, I’m quite surprised to see you here. I don’t think my assistant extended an invitation to you.”

The beta male turned away from his peers to smirk at Tony. “No, of course not. Not with our rapport that you and I have. Just thought I’d come to show my support.”

His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Uh-huh. I think you might actually be here to spy on me.”

The Senator chuckled with no humor to it. “That sounds ridiculous. Unless...you are hiding something.”

“Well, you have accused me, multiple times and to the public, that I created the Iron Man armor and that he works for me.”

“I just think it’s strange that the Iron Man technology is strikingly similar to the armor that you created for your closest friend, Colonel Rhodes.” Senator Stern placed a hand just above Tony’s elbow and he had to ignore the strong urge to slap his hand away. 

“Nobody believes me of course, so you should have nothing to worry about.” Tony mirrored his fake smile and slowly backed away from the politician's touch.

Pepper appeared at his side then, placing a reassuring and gentle hand on the small of his back.

“Are you playing nice Tony?”

Tony started to defend himself until the Senator cut in. “He’s been his usual self. It’s nice to see you again Ms. Potts.” 

The Senator grabbed the woman’s hand, bringing it to his lips and placing a light kiss on her pale knuckles.

Pepper was considerate, elegant, and professional. So when she pulled her hand away, she waited until the Senator released his hold, slowly placed her hand back to her side and did it with a gracious smile.

“Senator, nice to see you as well. Have you been introduced to Sarah? She’s our personal hairstylist. Maybe she can help you find a better...what is that, a wig?”

But she was also a smart-ass.

Tony had to cover his mouth to hide his cheeky grin after seeing the scowl on Senator Stern’s face.

“It’s a toupée actually.”

“Right, a toupée.” She wore a tight smile as she faced the Senator, before turning to Tony. 

“Tony, I have a reporter that has some questions for you.” 

He nodded at her, both of them sending an unspoken message with their eyes. They walked away from the unfavorable situation.

“Thank you for that, but you shouldn’t have left Sarah with him. That man is up to something.”

She waved a dismissive hand. “I’ll pay her extra to keep him occupied and you need to stop being so paranoid.”

“Technically, it would be me paying her.”

“Of course Tony, you are the boss.” Pepper walked over to the far side of the room, stopping at a table away from the crowd. “Come rest over here. I noticed you trying hard to keep from wincing every time you take a step.” 

“I promise Pep, I feel fine.” He said even as he leaned against the wall.

“It’s okay if you don’t feel fine.” She gave him a look, a look he’d seen on her face over a thousand times.

“I guess I could probably take a little break from walking.”

She smiled knowingly. “I’m going to find you a chair. Stay right here.”

He waited until she was a few steps away before letting out a long sigh. He was sore and exerted from circling around all night. He grabbed the handkerchief from his tuxedo coat and dabbed at the light sheen of sweat on his forehead. 

He hadn’t even noticed the male waitstaff that had slid next to him, leaning on the wall as well, until he was close enough to whisper in his ear. _“_

_We know who you are, Iron Man.”_

The low hiss in his ear caused him to jolt away from the man. He began to hyperventilate, his vision blurring at the edges. He stumbled away from the waiter, his breath becoming shallow as he slid down the wall and crumpled into himself. 

“Mr. Stark. Mr. Stark. Are you alright?” The young man asked. His features were twisted with concern.

He stared blankly at the man’s face before murmuring, “what did you say?”

The waiter blinked nervously. “Oh. I uh- I said, are you alright?”

“Before that!”

“I-I asked if you wanted me t-to turn on the large fans. You w-w-w-ere sweating a lot.”

“I-shit, I’m sorry. I just-I need...air, do you have a balcony or someplace I can--I need some air.”

“Yes. I’m really sorry if I startled you. There’s a balcony all the way down that hallway. Uhm, please don’t have me fired.”

Happy appeared next to the young man with a stern look on his face. “Everything okay over here boss?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Just give me some space.”

Happy and the waiter stepped to the side. He noticed mostly everyone else in the room was deadly silent and watching him intensely. As embarrassing as his breakdown was, he wouldn’t walk away with his head down, he took his time walking out of the room, head held high and looking straight ahead.

He reached glass, double doors that led out to a small balcony. He didn’t even flinch when he saw Director Fury sitting in an intricately made patio chair. 

“Is that kid out there one of yours?”

“Yes, but I didn’t tell him to scare you.” The Director paused for a moment to scrutinize Tony with his one good eye. “Why are you so jumpy Stark?”

“Fuck off.” He said dejectedly. He felt so drained, yet he was still on edge from his panic attack.

“Maybe this line of work is making your anxiety worse. Your sanity seems to be slipping away.”

“Thanks for your concern but it’s not warranted.”

Fury pressed on. “Or maybe it’s that alien technology you’ve been using.”

Tony glared at the bald man. “I tweaked the symbiote so that it won’t be absorbed into my body, meaning I have more control over it unlike the other symbiotic parasites that SHIELD captured. Maybe you shouldn’t have your agents sneak up on me at my private events.”

“You still can't guarantee that it’s not having any lasting effects on you. You’ve become a lot more reckless and unpredictable since you’ve started using your symbiote armor.”

“It’s called the Endo-Sym armor. And I think I remember having that long conversation about you _not_ showing up at my business or private events.”

“I’m here because Clint came to me about you.” 

Tony audibly groaned. “Now I gotta add him to your ‘snitch list’ too.”

Nick Fury slowly rose from his chair, walking to lean against the balcony as he looked Tony in the eye. 

“Whatever dangerous mission you plan on getting yourself involved in, I think it would be very wise for you to consider receiving aid from the Avengers.” 

“I don’t need any help from your little league team Nick. I’ve got everything covered, and I like working solo.” 

“The Winter Soldier and that Captain Hydra fellow are no easy threat. They once single-handedly killed seventy-eight SHIELD operatives in less than ten minutes. If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for the team that cares about you...by the way, you did a shitty job covering up that bruise on your temple.” 

Fury walked off into the shadows, leaving Tony to marinate on the other man’s words. Maybe Fury was right, maybe his sanity was fraying at the edges.

Shortly after the Director left, Pepper turned up, looking for Tony. She talked him into giving a short speech, thanking everyone for coming, and he left the event shortly afterwards to return home, alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry I posted it later than planned, I got a little busy with work.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry about the long wait. I had to see a doctor about severe migraines I was getting everyday. Now, I get them less frequently so I can focus a bit more. I posted two chapters to try to make up for the wait.

Heavy rain poured down as Iron man stood on the front lawn of his current target’s mansion. His feet were planted firmly on the well-kept grass as the armor produced an electromagnetic force field to stop the spray of bullets from striking him. 

“Jarvis, pull up the specs for the third floor of the house. I thought you said the guy only has two guards on the rotating night shift. There’s like FIFTY!” 

“Sir, I just discovered details of an anonymous tip that was given to Police Commissioner Hamiffre of your arrival. There was a message sent to his personal cellular device.” 

“So he knew I was coming then.”

He disabled the force fields in order to lift the Range Rover that was parked next to him. He raised the vehicle above his head, the 2.7 tons was nearly weightless to him while in the armor, and tossed it at a group of armed guards who were firing their guns at him. That took care of seven of the guards.

A shotgun bullet grazed him where his hip bone protruded, not powerful enough to damage the armor, but Tony felt the force of the hit underneath the suit. 

He slowly turned around to the offender that shot him. The guard was standing only but a few feet from him and was preparing to pull the trigger again. Iron Man activated the thrusters behind the elbow of the endo-sym armor and projected a punch at the guard’s face, breaking through the surface of the face-shield he donned and shattering his nasal bone.

He made quick work of the other guards who were scattered on the front lawn and the side of the house. He finished them off with the tendrils of the symbiote forming into blades which pierced through its victims before reattaching itself back to its host.

It wasn’t hard to find the police commissioner, he was standing in the large lounge area as if he was waiting for Iron Man’s arrival.

His target had an automatic rifle trained onto him and a sadistic smile etched on his face. 

TARGET INFORMATION CARD

Name: Brandon Hamiffre

Age: 66 years old

Place of Origin: Columbia, South Carolina

Position: Police Commissioner

Marriage Status: Divorced

Wanted For: 18 Counts of Rape

“Nice place you got here. If you would’ve stepped down and turned yourself in, maybe you could’ve put all this nice furniture in your cell.”

“I’ve done a lot for this community, and I’m not letting a bunch of sorry ass women take away my pension and my reputation.”

As he talked, Tony slowly crept towards the man. “Your reputation already went down the toilet. So that’s a loss cause.”

“Nobody believes them, not when they look at all the wonderful things I’ve done to better the community.”

“Well I’m sure we’ll be able to change their minds with the photos my AI accessed on your cell phone that you ‘claimed’ was stolen when you were being investigated.”

“H-how did you know about that?”

“ _WE KNOW EVERYTHING.”_ The words spoken came from his mouth but it sounded nothing like his voice. It sounded as if the armor was speaking on its own in a very deep and malevolent exclamation.

He leapt forward, planting two feet onto his target’s chest and knocking the older man to the floor. The rifle slid across the floor on impact, effectively disarming him.

Tony wrapped both of his armored hands around the man’s throat, slowly applying more pressure as the seconds went by.

“Any last words? A confession or apology to the women you’ve hurt maybe?”

“You’ve started a war Iron Man, and ...you will...not--win.”

The target pulled out something from inside his coat. It was a small, sphere-shaped object that looked as if it was made out of metal. It started glowing a bright blue color, and Tony heard alarms going off in his head, telling him to run, to move away, or to take cover.

He only had time to lift his hands away from his victim’s neck and used them to shield his eyes from the bright light before it detonated, swallowing Hamiffre and Tony into a large explosion of azure flames. It wasn’t a bomb, he couldn’t tell what it was exactly or what it was meant to do. 

The symbiote melted from its solid form and turned into its original liquid substance. It screeched in pain as it lifted away from Tony’s body, twisting and vibrating in the air. Tony was partially exposed to the blue fire as the symbiote was vulnerable to its flames. He yelled out in agony as the skin on his torso and chest was seared, his pitch matching the screeching noise of the symbiote. He made the underarmor suit to be fire-resistant, so he was shocked to see the fabric melt against his charred flesh.

The alien substance shoved its wearer away from the scorching heat and blinding light right before being pulled into the small sphere. The police commissioner was also swallowed into the sphere, leaving nothing of him behind except for dark scorch marks on the floor where his body had lain. The blue flames dissipated and the sphere dropped to the floor with a clang.

The silence that followed the explosion was deafening. He blinked away his confusion and scrambled to crawl towards the sphere. His hand hesitated as it reached for the round object, checking to see if it was still hot. The chrome metal was ice cold when his fingertips met with the surface of it.

He tried to use his psionic link to will the symbiote out of the orb but nothing happened.

✤

In the end, Tony couldn’t get the symbiote to come out and Jarvis wasn’t even responding.

He pulled out his burner phone which he kept tucked in a conveniently placed pocket of his underarmor. He wasn’t sure what to make of the situation that just happened. He crafted and enhanced the symbiote to be resistant to pretty much anything. Whoever created that sphere had to have the same knowledge on the research he had done on his symbiote and was probably just as intelligent as him. If anything, it must’ve been a scientist working with Hydra.

Hydra was the only reasonable explanation.

He dialed Director Fury’s cellphone number and the phone only rang twice before he picked up the line.

“This is Nick.”

“Hey, it's Stark. I uh--I need a lift.”

“And you called me?” Tony could see it now. Fury sitting back in his chair, not slouching but not sitting completely straight either. A disinterested look on his face and the eyebrow not covered by his eyepatch would be raised in question.

“Yes, I have a gift for you and I think you’re going to like it.”

“Send me your coordinates. Make sure it’s someplace we can land.”

Tony was forced to use his phone to search for his coordinates in order to send them to Director Fury. He found a small clearing and waited out there for a moment. Luckily, it was late at night and there wasn’t anyone walking about. He’s sure walking around at night in a skin-tight underarmour suit, carrying a metal orb would be defined as ‘suspicious activity’.

The quinjet landed not too far from him, cloaking itself as the belly of the jet touched the ground. 

There was only the Director and Agent Hill inside. He was expecting the others to be present as well.

“To what do I owe this unpleasant visit?”

“I need your help, well, the Avengers. I need the Avengers help.”

The Director gave him a smug smirk. “Ooh, well isn’t this a surprise? Mr. Solo Act needs some help. Did you have this revelation after nearly being blown to pieces?” Fury asked as he eyed the burns on Tony’s chest and midsection.

“Cut the crap Fury. I’m here on business. Where’s Natasha and Clint?’

“They’re finishing up a mission but they’ll be back sometime tonight. Why don’t you stick around for awhile? Banner is back at headquarters.”

“Alright, here take this.” He shoved the sphere into Fury’s chest.

“What the hell is this?”

He shrugged indifferently. “That’s your gift. It disabled Jarvis and my suit. I also think it swallowed...or disintegrated my last target. It’s some kind of weapon.”

“Sounds like technology similar to the Tesseract. I’ll have to call Ms. Foster and Dr. Selvig. You think you can send me the footage of what happened?”

“Once I get Jarvis back on-line, sure.”

“Hill, take us back to base.”

“Yes Sir.” The quinjet lifted off the ground and flew towards their destination.

Tony found Bruce in the lab on the helicarrier. The scientist was decked out in a lab coat and protective eyewear, mixing some kind of chemical formula. Bruce gently placed the beaker down when he saw Tony walk in.

“Hey Tony, it’s been awhile.” The other scientist smiled timidly.

Tony walked up to Bruce and they greeted each other with a warm hug. “It certainly has. If only you’d come work with me in my tower Brucey Bear, we could see each other much more often.”

Bruce backed away from Tony’s embrace, wrinkling his nose as he did. “Tony, you smell like burned flesh. Maybe you should go get that looked at.”

Tony looked down at the large wound. The skin just around the arc reactor was red and blistered and the rest of the exposed skin was mainly charred black. But most of the pain had faded and was replaced with a dull twinge. The air hitting his skin from where the underarmor had melted, felt soothing. 

“I swear I’m fine, I’ll just need some clothes. Mind sharing?”

“Course not. Although, I don’t wear my pants as tight as you do.” 

“Not everyone can have a package as big as the Hulk.” Tony said with a sly smile, eyeing the zipper on Bruce’s slacks. Bruce walked to the stock closet where he kept a spare outfit.

“You’re a pervert.” The scientist said even as he smiled and tossed Tony a button up shirt and pants.

Tony caught the clothes mid-air but winced at the pain he felt from lifting his arms above his head. He slowly lowered his arms and dropped the clothes on a stool before undressing himself. He was never a demure kind of guy, so he didn’t mind if Bruce watched as he dressed. Though, he knew Bruce was the kind of guy to turn away and give him his privacy, he didn’t look to see if that’s what he actually did.

“You need to go to the infirmary. I’ll go with you if you want.”

“No, I’m good. Just need to get this suit peeled off.”

“Tony, I wasn’t asking.” Bruce insisted, using a tone only an alpha could produce.

Bruce waited for Tony to finish dressing then opened the door, motioning for Tony to walk ahead of him.

Tony gave a grievous sigh and stepped ahead of Bruce, dragging his feet to the infirmary. If only to appease his friend.

They arrived at the medical bay and a nurse escorted them to a large clinical room where Tony sat waiting on the examination bed. 

“Hey, do you think you can bring me a tablet? I’d like to get some work done while I’m sitting idle.” He asked the nurse as she took his vitals and briefly examined his burns.

The nurse didn’t acknowledge him until she was about to leave the room.

“Wait just a moment Mr. Stark. The doctor will be right with you.”

He started twiddling his thumbs nervously as the room was filled with silence. Tony hated doctors, he hated clinics, and he hated hospitals. Not knowing the outcome of his health was nerve wracking. Trusting someone else to ‘fix’ him was even more nerve wracking, especially after the ‘shrapnel in his chest’ incident. Tony was just about to ask Bruce about his latest experiment or project that he was working on to distract himself, when Dr. Helen Cho walked in. She was followed by a group of men who were all hoisting a very large case.

He immediately perked up at seeing a familiar face. “Dr. Cho, what a surprise.”

She crossed her arms and gave Tony a stern look. “Mr. Stark, I heard you were in here bitching about your injury.”

“Did Fury tell you that? Because if he did, he’s a big fat liar.”

“No, the nurses told me. Though, I do have something for you that would lift your spirits.”

She motioned for the men to bring the case forward and open it up. “This is called ‘The Regeneration Cradle’. It prints new tissue made up of cells.

Bruce got up from his seat and circled around the machine, admiring it. “Helen, this looks amazing.”

She smiled bashfully. “Thank you Bruce.”

Tony made a face at them referring to each other by first names but refrained from commenting on it.

“So, how long will it take to patch me up?”

“Well, based on your chart, it seems that you only have second degree burns. It shouldn’t take more than an hour.”

He clasped his hands together. “Alright, let’s get her fired up.”

Tony was left victim to watching the two scientists _try_ to flirt with each other. Cho tried to explain to Bruce how the cradle worked, and he in turn, asked multiple questions with a smile that never left his face.

"The nano-molecular functionality is instantaneous. His cells don’t know they’re bonding with a simulacrum." Bruce commented, impressed by Dr. Cho’s work.

Dr. Cho nodded in agreement. “Pepper won’t be able to notice the difference.”

Tony winced. “She and I broke up actually. Surprised you didn’t hear about it. All the headlines have been saying that we couldn’t last long since we’re both alphas.”

“Well I don’t live here in the U.S so I don’t keep up with the American melodrama.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Then how do you know whenever Thor comes to earth?”

Dr. Cho cleared her throat as she looked away from Tony’s teasing smirk.

“That’s because I follow all his major fanclubs on twitter.”

Tony burst into a fit of laughter. 

Bruce placed a placating hand on the woman’s petite shoulder. “Don’t worry Helen. He’s just jealous because you don’t fangirl over him.”

“Oh, I know Bruce. I don’t see how he expects anyone to fangirl over a vigilante and only a few know what he looks like under the armor. Imagine someone having a crush on Batman.”

“I have plenty of omegan women aching for a moment of my time. Iron Man doesn’t need fangirls.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever helps your ego Stark.” 

She checked the readings on the monitor. “The machine is just about done. You don’t want to do any heavy lifting for about at least four hours afterwards.”

“Sure, sure. Thanks for this by the way.”

Dr. Cho gave him a kind smile and placed a warm hand on his arm. “You took care of a heinous criminal in my city and saved hundreds of our children. It’s the least I can do.”

Tony couldn’t hide the smile that appeared on his face after hearing the words of praise.

  
✤

A couple of hours later, Tony found himself back in Bruce’s lab, Jarvis was finally back online and he was trying to figure out what happened to his symbiote armor. Fury reported that Dr. Selvig and Foster were unable to find anything that could help them figure out what happened to the Police Commissioner or his symbiote. He had taken apart the wrist cuffs that previously held the symbiote and was trying to see what may have caused the device to become disabled.

“You know, it might be a good thing that the symbiote is gone. You can try to create a more efficient armor now."

“The Endo-Sym armor was the most efficient one that I’ve created.” Tony retorted defensively. He was frustrated from a lack of sleep and spending too much time on trying to get Jarvis back on-line didn’t help either. Shield’s mainframe was shit compared to the mainframe that was installed at his tower, and getting Jarvis back was more difficult than it should’ve been.

“But you can make a better one. Take a look at this. I’ve been studying these nanoparticles and I think you can make them into neurokinetic user-controlled morphologic nanoparticle bundles for your suit. It would almost work the same as the symbiote armor but less...creepy.”

Tony grabbed the small, glass container that held a piece of the nanoparticle bundle, and looked at it intensely. 

“I’ll see what I can do with this. Thanks buddy.”

He spent the rest of the night, and the early morning working on his new suit. Shield had enough tools and technology to aid him in building the armor, although it wasn’t on par with what he had in his own lab, it sufficed.

He’d plan on placing repulsors on the knuckles, palms, chest, back, and legs of the armor but wouldn’t be able to do so until he got back to his lab. This time, he decided to place the housing unit over the arc reactor in his chest. 

He still needed to design the weapon components that he would add to the suit but the basic exoskeleton was built and he would finish the rest later. For now, he could no longer fight off sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Natasha, Clint, Bruce, Agent Hill, and Tony were all gathered around the table in the Avenger’s meeting room.

On the large monitor, were the grainy images of his last fight with Captain Hydra. Clint and Bruce were whispering to each other while Tony picked at the fine hairs on his arm. Natasha sat stoically, not moving, only blinking occasionally. Sometimes, Tony questioned whether or not she was a vampire.

Director Fury walked into the room, causing its occupants to become silent. Fury scrutinized everyone before proceeding to sit at the head of the table.

“Earlier this morning, I sent the cleanup team to the mansion Stark was at last night. The bodies had already been removed and all the furniture was missing, almost as if no one was ever there. We did, however, find a few blood stains on the driveway pavement and scorch marks inside the house from where we believe the explosion happened. We suspect that Hydra got there before us and cleaned up the scene. They’ve recently started reappearing on our watchlist and we think they may have some connection with the disfigured bodies that were found.” 

“Wait, Hydra?? So you’re saying an organization full of evil people that was supposed to be taken down decades ago, is still active and currently running havoc? You decided to not share this information with us until now?” 

Tony noticed a few of the veins in Bruce’s neck turn a dark green color as Bruce asked the question with poorly contained frustration. He placed a hand on the scientist’s shoulder to help calm him.

“In the past, Shield has tried tracking down and eliminating Hydra with very, _very_ little luck. We’ve lost hundreds of agents who were brave enough to try to help track them down over the past few decades. A few years ago, one of our agents successfully infiltrated one of their bases, but the job has proven to be too risky and we haven’t been able to gather enough intel. The reason why those files were locked away is because that agent is still undercover and we can’t risk that information getting in the wrong hands. That’s also the reason why no one else has clearance to know about Hydra.” Fury pressed out, glaring at Clint as he finished off his last sentence.

Then he turned his gaze to Tony. “We think, with Iron Man’s help, that we can successfully take them down. And Stark has expressed his desire to help us.”

“Actually, that’s a little inaccurate. _I_ came to you for assistance in helping _me_ take down Hydra. Not the other way around. If we do this together, I’m calling the shots.”

“Tomato, tomatoe Stark. Either way, you’ll be working with the Avengers. And if you call the shots, you’ll still need to ‘run the play’ by me.”

“That’s fine with me. I think we should first track down the Winter Soldier and the Captain.”

“If you plan on going after Captain Hydra and the Winter Soldier first, then Romanov has some information that might be useful.”

Tony didn’t say anything as Natasha stood from her seat. He thought of the text he received on his burner phone when he woke up earlier that morning.

**_Unknown: Good work on taking out those undercover Hydra members. Now we need you to take out Captain Hydra and The Winter Soldier._ **

He couldn’t tell the team why it was so important that they go after Captain Hydra and the Winter Soldier first or that he planned on killing both men after he forced out any information he could get from them. Whoever was sending him hits to take out Hydra members was now an ally because they had a common enemy. Once he finished off Captain Hydra and the Winter Soldier, he suspected that his unknown ally may just lead him straight to the leader of Hydra.

“Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over five dozen assassinations in the last forty years, possibly more we don’t know about.”

“So he’s a ghost story?” Bruce asked. 

Natasha momentarily assessed Bruce with a raised eyebrow before continuing.

“Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me.”

Natasha pulled up her t-shirt half-way to show a dark scar on her torso, right above her left hip. “A Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye-bye bikinis.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now.”

Natasha smirked. “Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried.” 

She looked at Bruce again. “Like you said, he’s a ghost story.”

Tony leaned back in his chair and placed his folded hands behind his head. “Before, you didn’t have me. I think we can find them by figuring out who their next target will be and we can get there before they do. Most of my recent targets have been Hydra members so all we have to do is follow their trail.”

Natasha nodded. “Alright, you’re the boss. Where do we start looking?”

✤

  
  


Tony had Natasha and Clint searching through the dark web, on Iron Man’s personal hit request list, to find a wanted Hydra member. The two spies correlated through the people on the list, going through their backgrounds and connections with the deceased Hydra members to see if they were connected.

He and Bruce were in his own lab, finishing up the new Iron Man armor. He’d created a housing unit for the nanoparticles that would be placed over top the arc reactor with sixteen micro-RTs built throughout the suit. 

“So what are you going to call this suit?”

“Mark Fifty.”

“No fancy names like the Endo-Sym Armor?”

“Nah, this has the classic red and gold features similar to my other suits. So it deserves a classic name too.”

“Makes sense.” Bruce shifted to sit atop of one of the workshop stools as he bit into a cheesesteak sandwich.

Tony moved to place all his tools back in his toolbox. “I’ve been meaning to ask, what’s up with you and Dr. Cho? Is she your mate?”

Bruce wiped his mouth with a napkin before responding. “We, uh, we’re not dating. I think she likes me. I’m just not sure if she wants me to be her alpha.”

“Have you asked her yet?”

Bruce looked down and rubbed the back of his neck. “I wasn’t sure how to do that exactly.”

“Come on Bruce, what’re we friends for if you can’t come to me for dating advice?”

“Tony, you suck at dating and relationships.”

Tony’s mouth dropped open in shock and he placed a hand to his chest. “I’m appalled that those words just came out of your mouth. I know how to get _anyone_ in bed with me.”

“Well, that’s not my goal. I want to bond with her….if she’s willing to be my omega.”

“I can help you with that too, Brucie Bear. When will she be in the States again? I’ll set up a fancy date for you two.”

“Tony thanks, but I really don’t want your help--”

“Sir, you have an incoming call from Agent Barton.”

“Plug him in J.”

“Stark, we think we found their next target.” Clint’s voice echoed throughout the expansive lab.

“Who is it?”

“Some Casino owner, named John Castello. He’s middle-aged and lives in New Jersey, owns about three of them. He also deals drugs out of his casinos.”

Tony crossed his arms as he leaned against his workbench. “What’s his location?”

“We didn’t get that yet, but we know where he’ll be later tonight. He plays poker every Thursday night at a private club.”

“Alright, send me the location and give me your ETA. Bruce and I will meet you guys there.”

“You got it boss.”

The call disconnected and Tony looked at Bruce expectantly. He and Bruce hadn’t been friends for very long, they had only met two years ago during The Battle of New York. He stayed busy between running his company, inventing weapons, and being Iron Man, which left him with very little free time. Although the two didn’t get to spend a lot of time together, he and Bruce understood each other without having to share all the history of their pasts.

“I know you don’t want to go, but you’d only be there as an extra pair of eyes.”

Bruce gave him an incredulous look at the unexpected request. “You need me to be the lookout?”

“Yeah, but only if you want to.”

“I’d have to stand as far away as I can from any conflict.”

“Sure, we can put you on a building with Clint.”

Bruce shook his head with a disapproving frown. “Not good enough. Away from Clint, away from any weapons.”

“Fine, we’ll give you a pair of binoculars and stick you at the top of a skyscraper. Far away from any cross fire.”

“I think that’ll work.”

Tony moved his weight away from the workbench, and placed the housing unit over his arc reactor. “Great, now I need to do some quick test runs with the armor before we leave. Mind helping me?”

“Just don’t ask me to be your human shield.”

  
  


✤

  
  


Tony and Natasha sat in an unmarked, black SUV, courtesy of Shield, on the side of a road. They were parked directly in front of an ice cream parlor, which was two stores down from the private club that their victim was located at. Clint was perched on the roof of the private club, waiting for their assailants and Bruce was five blocks down, looking out the window on the top floor of a banking firm.

“Alright Bruce, you remember what they look like right? One guy has a metal arm and the other guy will probably have a circular shield with him. Report any suspicious-looking vehicles as well.”

“Okay, haven’t seen anything yet. Although it’s hard to see much, this town barely has any streetlights.” 

Clint groaned impatiently. “Dude, turn on the night-vision switch. It’s on the side.”

“You guys know I’m not good at this spy stuff, right?”

“Cut the chatter boys. Looks like our guy is leaving the club.”

“Hey, wait!!” Bruce shouted. “I see two motorcycles speeding down Nassau Street. They’re headed towards your location. One of the bikers has a large shield on his back.”

“That’s them, let’s go!” Tony yanked on the door handle before swinging the car door open. He paused when he felt Natasha place a firm hand on his shoulder.

“Stark, hold on. We have to wait for them to pull up.”

“Castello will be shot by then!” Tony argued.

“We’re not here to save Castello, he’s Hydra remember? We’re here to catch the assassins.”

“We need to be ready to attack or they might get away!”

“We’ll get out as soon as they reach Castello, but we can’t be seen yet.”

“We got incoming!” Clint interrupted. “Some guy in red pajamas is….flying?? I can’t tell if he’s flying or has some kind of invisible rope.”

Natasha gripped his shirt and snatched Tony back into the passenger’s seat as one of the motorcycles zoomed past and the handlebar knocked into the car door causing it to tear off.

“What the fuck?” He blurted out, feeling like he got the wind knocked out of him. If Natasha didn’t pull him back, the motorcycle probably would’ve torn his leg off. He sat up in the seat and watched as Captain Hydra and the Winter Soldier rode up on Castello. The casino owner heard the engine of the bikes and began to run. A bright red and blue flurry of color swooped past them, and swung in behind Captain Hydra’s bike. 

Tony noticed Captain Hydra pull a gun from his holster and point it at Castello. He jumped out of the car and activated the armor, preparing to shoot at Captain Hydra to prevent him from making the kill. This time, Natasha made no move to stop him. He noticed her get out of the car too but he kept his focus on the target.

Before the nanoparticles could fully form around his figure, the perpetrator in the poorly-made costume shot some sort of chemical reactant at the gun in Captain Hydra’s hand and yanked the weapon back.

Captain Hydra planted his right boot on the ground and reeled his bike in a 180 degree angle. He and the weirdo in the pajamas were staring down at each other. The Winter Soldier continued to chase after Castello, almost reaching the man running on foot.

“Hawkeye! Now!” Natasha yelled into the comm. She started chasing after the Winter Soldier at a rapid speed.

Clint shot an arrow at the Winter Soldier but the armed soldier caught the arrow mid-air with his human arm, while gripping the handlebar of the bike with the other hand. Then the assassin turned his dark gaze to Clint, who was crouched down on the roof with a goofy grin on his face. The arrow that he was still holding erupted with high-voltage electric currents, causing the metal-armed man to tumble off his bike which fell over and skid to a stop.

“Works every time.” Clint smirked as he ran to the edge of the roof, using a grappling hook to scale off the side of the building.

Tony was helping the masked man in the pajamas (seriously, who was this guy?) fight off Captain Hydra. The other guy was holding his own pretty well, to Tony's surprise. He was strong enough to fair most of Captain Hydra’s attacks but wasn't strong enough to subdue him.

“The tensile strength of your webbing is off the charts. Who manufactured it?” Tony asked curiously as he tried to pry Captain Hydra’s fingers from his neck as the other guy used his web to hold back the shield and keep the Captain from striking Tony with it.

“I did.” Tony did a double-take when he heard the masked man’s young voice. It was very squeaky, and child-like. Nearly close to how his own voice sounded before he finished going through puberty.

“Hey, Jarvis. See if you can get a read on that guy. Find out who he is.” 

“Do you guys need my help?” Bruce’s voice came over the comms in an apprehensive tone.

“No! Stay where you are Bruce!” Natasha yelled out as she ran straight towards the Winter Soldier. He had already gotten off the ground after being electrocuted, seemingly unaffected by the aftermath and was stalking towards her at a normal pace, meeting the red-haired woman in the middle. She pulled out her gun and started shooting at him.

The Winter Soldier used his metal arm to shield his face and broke out into a sprint as he dodged her bullets. Once he reached her, he grabbed her wrist that was holding the gun and twisted it until the weapon dropped to the ground. Natasha knee-kicked the man on his side, then rammed her elbow into the crook of his neck and shoulder.

The man hooked his arm behind her thigh and lifted her off the ground before slamming her into the pavement.

Natasha cried out in pain as she heard the pavement crack beneath her. She turned her head to cough up blood when the Winter Soldier used his weight to pin her torso to the ground, then pinned her wrists above her head. 

“Hawkeye. Need backup.” She wheezed out.

“I’m right here Nat.” Clint stood behind the Winter Soldier, on the other side of the street, with an arrow aimed at his back. He shot the arrow without hesitation, hitting his target in his right shoulder. The arrowhead narrowly avoided piercing through Natasha’s leather jacket. 

The Winter Soldier growled ferociously, before moving to crouch beside her, almost shielding her body from Clint. He grabbed the end of the arrow and snatched it out of his shoulder. Blood sprayed from the laceration before it instantly started to heal.

The air changed around them. The alpha’s scent became tart and unpleasant, radiating in the space between them. Natasha’s eyes went big at the realization of what was happening. 

“Hawkeye, RUN!! NOW!!”

“Aww shit!” Clint hooked his bow on his back and took off into a sprint.

The alpha leapt in the air, running behind the archer when he landed on the ground. He swiftly caught up to Clint and grabbed the beta by his brown tufts of hair, yanking the man’s head back. He snarled in the archer’s face then kicked his steel-toe boot at the smaller man’s ankle, causing it to break on impact.

“Hnnnggh! You son of a bitch!”

The Winter Soldier effortlessly dodged the elbow that Clint tried to jab at him. Then he took the gun from the holster at his waist and dug the barrel of it against the other man’s side.

“No you don’t.” Natasha raced towards them and leapt up on the Winter Soldier’s back before wrapping her legs around his shoulder and flipping her body to face him. Her crotch was directly in front of his face while her legs dangled over his shoulders. She placed the tip of her slender fingers on his temples, both hands gently resting on his face. 

**_Mischka,_ ** **_lyubov moya. Stand down._ **

The alpha released his hold on Clint’s hair and stumbled backwards three steps before righting himself again. The gun he was holding, clattered loudly upon hitting the pavement. He slowly lifted his head to meet the woman’s sea green eyes. Although she could only see part of his face, she could clearly see the recognition and pain set deep into his brown eyes.

**_Natashenka?_ **

Natasha stiffly nodded her head. Her lips were pressed in a thin line as she whispered, “ ** _I’m sorry.”_ **

She swung her legs and flipped the both of them, causing the man to fall to the ground, right next to the gun he held previously. She kept him pinned to the ground with her arm, before grabbing the gun that rested next to the Winter Soldier’s head and pistol-whipped him on his skull. 

After he fell unconscious, Natasha didn’t hesitate to rush to Clint’s side to make sure he was okay. The archer sat on the ground, his legs stretched out in front of him. His left ankle was twisted at a wrong angle, and he was clutching the fabric of his pants leg.

“Let me see how bad it is.” Natasha said as she lightly touched his boot.

“Fuck, this is going to hurt.” He removed his glove on his right hand, and placed it between his teeth to muffle his cries.

She slowly, inch by inch, began to take off his left boot, biting her bottom lip as she concentrated on trying to not move his ankle too much.

Tony had just barely dodged a car that Captain Hydra threw at him, when he noticed the Winter Soldier was knocked out on the side of the street. His opponent followed his gaze and looked over his shoulder.

“Buck!”

Tony watched as the alpha’s knees buckled before he went rigid and ran towards the man lying on the ground. 

The kid (yeah he was a _damn_ kid according to Jarvis’ data) was laid out in a pile of trash bags by the alleyway. Tony had benched him after Captain Hydra swatted him with his shield as he was trying to swing a kick at the alpha.

Natasha was startled when she heard Captain Hydra’s boots skid across the pavement. She turned around and drew the gun she picked up before, pointing it at Captain Hydra’s head as a warning.

Captain Hydra took his fingers off of the Winter Soldier’s pulse and tossed his shield at her wrist. She dropped the gun and hissed before tightly holding her wrist against her chest.

The Captain stood up then. “I’m done fighting. Just let me take him and we’ll leave quietly.”

“Let em’ go. We’ll run into them again.” Natasha complied but she kept her eyes trained on the skilled alpha.

Clint glared at him. “What!? The fuck do you mean ‘let them go’?! That’s not part of the mission.”

“I owe him one.” Tony looked at Captain Hydra and nodded his head in return. The alpha picked up his shield and placed it on his back. Then he scooped up his friend, tossed him over his shoulder, and hopped on his motorcycle before riding off.

“You and Nat could’ve taken Captain Hydra. Why would you let him go?”

“It’s complicated. Besides, you and the Spidey kid are down and out. We need to get you both home. I’m sure the kid is breaking curfew.”

“Wait...kid?” The archer asked, looking at Tony with confusion.

Tony pointed his head in the direction where the young teenager was still sprawled across the garbage bags. Bruce came down from the building and was walking towards them.

Tony helped Natasha lift Clint from the ground and the archer placed his arms around the two omegas’ neck for support as they walked over to the kid. 

Bruce was crouched beside the boy, checking his wrist for a pulse. Satisfied, he took off the boy's mask.

“Omg!! What just happened? Are you the real Iron Man? Did I just fight alongside the Avengers? Who were those guys? Hi, I’m Peter by the way.” He stuck his hand out for a handshake.

Tony took the hand and used it to pull the boy up from the pile. “Are you insane? You could’ve gotten killed. How could you jump into a fight without even knowing who you’re going up against?”

Bruce interceded. “Hold on now Tony. He seemed to be holding his own pretty well.”

“Yeah, until Captain Hydra hit a home run with him. Does your Aunt know you’re out here?”

The kid blinked nervously. “H-how do you know Aunt May?”

“I don’t. My AI looked you up and did some research on you. And I know you’re way too young to be out here playing hero.”

The kid stepped forward defensively. “I’m fourteen!”

“Yeah, like I said. Too young. Now where do you live, I’ll give you a lift?”

“Queens, New York.”

“Alright. Bruce, Natasha, take Birdman back to the helicarrier and I’ll catch up with you all tomorrow.”

Natasha gave him a disapproving glance. “Fury’s going to want you to come in and provide a mission report.”

“You three can give him the gist of it and I’ll fill in the blanks tomorrow. I need a drink and my bed. Besides, the kid doesn't live too far from me so that’s where I’m headed.”

“We’re a team. You need to come--”

Natasha slapped her hand over Clint’s mouth and gave Tony a tired smile. “Alright, I’ll let Fury know. Get the kid home safely.”

Tony gave a salute before turning to the kid. “Put your mask back on and hold on tight.”

“Oh, this is going to be soooo awesome!” Peter said as he placed his mask back over his head, and wrapped his arms around Iron Man’s shoulders. He was practically vibrating with excitement.

Tony placed an arm around the kids’ waist and frowned when he noticed how thin he was.

“Geez kid, do you eat anything?”

“Yeah, I eat a lot actually. I just have a really fast metabolism. Comes along with the powers.”

Natasha took her hand away from Clint’s mouth, ignoring the glare he gave her. She waved them off. “It was nice to meet you Peter.”

“Oh, uhm...I, yeah. It was n-nice to meet you...too.” 

Tony chuckled at the boy’s embarrassed demeanor.

He started the thrusters and flew off into the sky. He dropped off Peter on the roof of his Aunt’s apartment complex.

“Alright kid, if you’re going to do this crime fighting thing, don’t cross the state lines to find bad guys. Do it within your own territory.”

“Yes Mr. Iron Man, sir. Uhm...you’re not going to tell my Aunt about this right?”

“No, that’s not my place. Unless you go against what I just said.”

“Thank you.”

“Sure. Get inside.” Tony waited for the kid to go in, which he did by crawling through his bedroom window, before flying to the tower.

Once Tony got home, the nanoparticles retreated into the housing unit as soon as he touched down on the landing pad. He went to the bar, and poured himself two glasses of Brandy in his favorite crystal glasses, from the set his mother left behind, and carried them upstairs into his bedroom.

He downed one glass before placing it on his nightstand, and cradled the other in his hand and sunk down onto his bed. 

“Jarvis, set up an appointment tomorrow with that massage therapist Pepper recommended last time. See if they are available early, tomorrow morning. Also create a file for that kid. Parker right?

“Yes Sir. What would you like me to name the file?”

“Potential Avenger.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was originally two separate chapters which I combined into one. So that's why it took a bit longer to finish. (so sorry). Tony and Steve have a big revelation at the end of the chapter. Enjoy.

Tony arrived at the helicarrier early the next day. He walked into one of the common areas and noticed Clint and Natasha arguing in hushed voices. Clint was sitting in a wheelchair, with his left foot and ankle in a cast. Bruce was sitting off to the side, at a cafeteria table, with a breakfast large enough to feed the Hulk laid out in front of him.

“What’s going on? It looks like you two are having trouble in paradise.”

“I’m just trying to figure out what the fuck happened last night. I want an explanation from you two about the mission.”

Bruce looked up from the tray in front of him. “Wait, what did Natasha do?”

“Natasha has been withholding vital information from us. Last night, when the Winter Soldier turned into a feral alpha, Tasha was able to easily subdue him.” Clint said as he glared disapprovingly at the redhead woman. 

“I was too busy trying to not get my ass kicked so I’m going to need you to elaborate a bit more.” Tony said. He hadn’t seen what happened when Natasha and Clint were fighting the Winter Soldier. Even with a bit of help from the spider kid, he had his hands full with Captain Hydra.

“Tell him Nat. All she did was touch him and he became docile.”

Tony arched one eyebrow. “Care to explain?”

Natasha cast her eyes to the floor, and crossed her arms over her chest. She looked uncomfortable from the confrontation. Whatever she was keeping from them was very personal, and Tony knew she wasn’t the personable type. He felt invasive for asking her to open up to him but she clearly got the upperhand on the Winter Soldier last night, and he wasn’t sure how that happened. He needed to get whatever information he could on Hydra and whoever was affiliated with them. His intuition told him they were plotting something horrible and he had to do whatever he could to stop them before they could put their plans into fruition.

“I didn’t tell you guys the whole story about my first run-in with the Winter Soldier five years ago. I lost a lot of blood that day he shot me, he hit a vital organ and I passed out within seconds of being hit. I should’ve died that day but I didn’t. When I woke up, the bullet wound had been stitched up and bandaged. He was there right next to me...in some undisclosed location. Some kind of shabby safehouse. He was originally aiming to shoot me right here.” She demonstrated by pointing at her sternum. “In the center of my chest. Right as he pulled the trigger, our eyes met and everything changed. He was able to divert his aim at the last second and the bullet ended up hitting my stomach. But he saved me. A few days after I started to heal, we completed the soulbond and I never saw him again….until last night.”

She sighed heavily. “I’ve tried tracking him for a long time. His files would always end up being erased from any intelligence databases. Hydra has been covering up their tracks for years.”

“So a psychopathic assassin working for a bunch of crazies is your soulmate?” Bruce said before biting down on a burger.

Natasha’s green eyes looked sad as she glanced at the scientist. “You know we don’t get to choose Bruce.”

Bruce returned her gaze with a strange look, one that Tony decided to ignore. He wasn’t going to touch that topic with a yard-long stick.

He cleared his throat theatrically, bringing the attention of the room back to him. “Well, I guess it is a good thing that I let them go.”

“And why is that?” Clint responded.

Tony leaned on the wall nearest to him. “I received a hit to kill them both. Romanoff would’ve been collateral damage if her alpha-soulmate died. I hadn’t yet decided if I was going to accept the hit but now I don’t need to guess anymore. The reason I let them go is because Captain Hydra saved my life, twice. He saved me from getting hit by a rocket missile and he saved me from drowning. I was just repaying my debt to him.”

“So you weren’t going to tell us about the hit? We were just supposed to capture them and bring them in for questioning. Come on guys, I’m not saying we have to sit around and braid each others’ hair while we spill our dirty little secrets, but I expect us to tell each other things that are vital to the mission. I certainly expected more from you Nat.”

She nodded solemnly before giving her comrade a sincere apology. “I hear you loud and clear Clint. Won’t happen again.

The archer clasped his hands together satisfactorily. “Now Stark, what’s our next plan of action?”

Tony crossed his arms and looked at the tiled floor with a perplexed face. “I’m not sure yet. There’s something here that I think we’re missing.”

Many of the events that occurred over the past couple of weeks didn’t make much sense. The disposed bodies, the anonymous hit requests, Hydra killing their own members, and most of all Captain Hydra and the Winter Soldier were the oddest part about this whole thing. How could they have lived for so many years assassinating people without seeming to age? How were they able to survive the explosion and all their attacks without being injured? Most importantly, why did Captain Hydra save his life if the alpha was a bad guy?

“Yeah, there’s a lot of suspicious shit going on with this Hydra fiasco. The Winter Soldier guy was practically unaffected by any of my weapons. It’s like they’re some kind of enhanced super humans.”

His head snapped up and he looked at Clint intensely. “Wait, what did you just say?”

“I said, it’s like they're some kind of enhanced super humans.” The archer said as he shrugged his shoulders.

“I need to get to Malibu.” Tony said hastily as he straightened his posture.

Bruce stood from his seat. “Tony, why? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just have a theory. I need to see if it might be true.”

He walked off to the air hangar, with no further explanation. There was a nagging feeling in his head and a deep sense of unease in the pit of his stomach. He’d need to find his father’s old stuff that was stored away at his Malibu house if he wanted to get the answers he was looking for. Clint’s statement gave him a newfound revelation and he’d just need to see proof before he took any further action.

He noticed someone walking behind him, trying to keep up with his fast stride. The light footsteps were hardly detectable.

“Can I help you, Romanoff?” He asked, turning around to face the petite woman.

“I’m coming with you.”

“Uh, no you’re not. I don't need any help with this.”

“I want to know about whatever you’re looking for. It has to do with my mate right?”

He let out an annoyed huff. “Alright fine. It’s a long distance from here though so you’ll need to take a jet. You won’t be able to stand winds at my speed for such a long distance if I carry you.”

“I’ll meet you there.” Natasha sauntered off to one of the Shield jets.

He beat her to his previous home, using the booster jets on his new suit, and landed out on the deck. There wasn’t a landing pad such as the one at the tower so Natasha was forced to land the jet on the roof of the house.

All of the furniture was still covered with white sheets. He never got around to auctioning the items away online, since he was too busy running his company.

Natasha met him in the family room. Although it could hardly be considered a family room. It was only ever him and Pepper and he couldn’t even call that a family with their constant breakups.

“Well, the atmosphere here is very unwelcoming.” She drawled sarcastically.

“I haven’t been here for years, not since Killian tried to blow up my house and hit me with a missle.”

“Good thing you knew he was sending someone, otherwise Pepper could’ve been killed.”

“Well, when you threaten a fake terrorist, you gotta’ be prepared. Anyway, I think the boxes were left in the basement. Let’s go.”

Tony led Natasha down the stairs to his old lab. He flipped the switch to turn on the lights. Thankfully, Pepper hadn't cancelled the electricity payments. 

He couldn’t remember where he placed those three boxes of things he kept from the old Stark Mansion. No one else had lived there since he moved out and he still owned the house, but he had felt better packing away some of his parent’s belongings that carried nostalgic memories of them and the happy times he spent with Jarvis and his mother.

He searched around until he found the boxes in a small corner, covered by a small tarp.

“Is that your father’s stuff that Fury gave to you when you were dying from Palladium poisoning?”

“No. Not that anyone knows this but I kept a few personal things that my father left behind. Including his Captain America memorabilia.” Tony went to the dim corner of the lab, and grabbed two boxes from the floor, before carrying them to one of the workbenches.

Natasha wrinkled her nose in distaste. “And why would you keep that? I didn’t think you were the hoarder type.”

Tony knew what Natasha was trying to do. She did it often though he believed she was unaware of what she was doing. She had a habit of analyzing people, something she was trained to do since the Red Room. But he felt she was genuinely interested in his responses, and he wasn't going to pass up an opening to talk about himself. 

“I’m not. I was a bit of a fan myself, back when I was like six years old. My childhood room was also filled with posters, comics, and action figures of Captain America and The Commandos. Later on, as I grew older, I ended up hating the guy.”

“Why?”

“My father spent majority of his free time searching for a man who was long since dead. He never really paid any attention to me. Whenever he did give me any attention, he was always berating me and telling me I should be more like the great Captain America and I blamed the guy in tights and stripes.”

“But…” Tony started as he found the old sepia-toned photo he was looking for. “I’m thinking that he actually may not be dead.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Take a look here. No one has actually seen Captain Hydra without his helmet. Here’s a picture of Captain America with the Commandos without his helmet, and here’s a picture of him and Sergeant Barnes with his helmet on.”

“The shape of the helmet looks very similar to the one Captain Hydra was wearing. Even the shield, it looks like the one Captain Hydra has.”

“Exactly.”

Natasha gave him a deadpanned look. “That still doesn’t prove it’s the same man. It could very well be someone trying to impersonate him or it could be an obsessed fan.”

“Had a feeling you might say that. See this guy here? Sergeant Bsrnes?”

“Yeah, what about him?”

“His name was James Buchanan Barnes. He went by the nickname ‘Bucky’. When we were fighting Captain Hydra, I heard him yell _‘Bucky’_ before he ran over to help his friend out.”

“James--when I first met my mate, he told me his name was James but he said he couldn’t remember his full name, and last night, he didn’t recognize me. If they really are the same people as the ones in this picture, maybe Hydra is cloning them, or possibly tampering with their memories. What do you think?”

“I’d say time travel but I don’t think Hydra is smart enough to have figured that out. If they used a serum on Sergeant Barnes similar to the one my father and Dr. Erskine made, then the Super Soldier serum could’ve kept both of them alive when Sergeant Barnes fell from the train and when Captain America’s plane crashed in the ice. That may have helped slow down their aging process but it wouldn’t have ceased their cells from aging altogether, so I’m still not sure how they could be so young.”

He turned to Natasha. “You said the Winter Soldier told you his first name is James but he couldn’t remember his last name and neither could he remember you. There must be some kind of mind control going on here….”

Tony took a closer look at the pictures laid out in front of him. There was something else here and he felt as if he needed one more piece of the puzzle to solve the mystery. 

“What if they were being brainwashed….like how Loki used the staff to control Clint?! We need to go.”

“Where to exactly?”

“The house of our last target.”

  
  
✤  
  
  


Tony flew in the jet with Natasha to New Jersey. They cloaked the jet before parking it in a large clearing, not too far from a private beach.

John Castello had a nice sized house right off the coast. It wasn’t on the beach per-say but it was overlooking the water. It was twilight and the sky was painted in pink, orange, and purple hues with the sun peeking over the horizon.

Tony walked without his Iron Man armor, to avoid attention. If anyone did notice them, then they’d might mistake his under armour suit for a diver’s wetsuit. They took a back alley and reached the stairs leading up to the side door.

“Why are we here again?”

“To get some answers. Hydra’s favorite assassins will most likely come here to finish the job.”

“What makes you sure they didn’t already?”

He hadn’t thought about that. It was possible although it’d been less than 24 hours since Castello escaped and since he let Captain Hydra walk after their last altercation. He suspected the blonde haired Captain would lay low with his friend after Natasha knocked the guy out. But she had a point. Castello might already be dead.

He looked through the window beside him. It was dark inside, no lights seemed to be on, and there was no movement. The door looked to be locked, as if there was no forced entry. He tried the handle...it was locked.

“Doesn’t seem like anyone was here.”

He formed a gauntlet to laser cut a whole in the window before Natasha placed a hand on his wrist. 

“Don’t use your armor. It’s too loud and gaudy and it’ll attract too much attention.” She took her gun out from inside her jacket and used the butt of the gun to bang against the doorknob until it was hanging ajar. The door opened easily after that.

He had half-a-mind to be irritated with her comment about his suit, but chose to let it go. The nanabites retreated back into the housing unit as he followed Natasha into the house. It was eerily silent, save for a strange scratching sound. The noise was faint and didn’t seem to be coming from within the house so Tony ignored it.

Natasha still had her gun in her hand. She slowly walked around the house, searching for anything amiss.

“There’s nothing down here, let’s check upstairs.”

He nodded and again, followed the woman upstairs.

The first room they entered was empty, save for exercising equipment. But the second door led to a bathroom.

The lights were off, yet, they both could clearly see the body that was floating in the bathtub which was filled to the top with water. The man in the tub had his mouth gagged and his hands tied behind him.

Tony knew for sure that he was dead, but Natasha kneeled at the edge of the tub and placed her fingers on the man’s neck to check for a pulse anyway.

She shook her head in confirmation of his death and looked at Tony, questioning his next move.

“We’ll leave him here for SHIELD to take care of. Let’s look around for more clues. He might have some information about Hydra hidden somewhere around here, especially since he knew they were coming after him.”

They continued to search through the rooms upstairs and looked through every crevice downstairs, emptying out the drawers and rummaging through any closets. Nothing stood out amongst their findings.

Tony could still hear the scratching noise, although it was faint.

“Do you hear that?”

“That clawing noise, yeah I thought I was imagining it.”

“No, it seems like it’s coming from within the walls.” He stopped and listened for a moment, keeping still to focus on the sound. He stood closer to the wall that expanded just before the staircase. Then slowly leaned in to press his ear against the light green, chipped wallpaper. There was a slow drag of an object of sort scraping against the wall.

“Romanoff, look for something that might open a secret door.” Tony said as he removed his ear and began to run his fingers across the wallpaper, trying to find a latch.

Natasha moved a beige loveseat to the side to examine the area behind it. There was minimal light stemming from the sheer curtains decorating the windows but not enough to search.

She reached up and pulled on a switch to turn on the table lamp.

That’s when the wall that Tony was standing in front of slowly opened up. 

“Well, that was easy.” Natasha said.

Part of the wall moved back and slid open to reveal a dark path that led to a long staircase leading somewhere beneath the house. 

“Alright, let’s see where this----Fucking Christ!” A white-furred cat jumped out at Tony’s feet, from the darkness ahead. It snarled at Tony and ran underneath the loveseat.

Said man placed a hand against his chest and took deep breaths to try and calm his accelerated heart rate.

“Scared of a little ol’ cat Stark?”

Tony pointed at the small, four-legged animal like it was offensive to him. “That _thing_ jumped out from nowhere.”

“Come on. I’ll walk ahead in case anymore ‘monsters’ jump out.” Natasha joked as she walked past Tony and through the open wall with a playful smirk on her lips.

“You’re hilarious.” He bit out as he brushed past the smaller woman and took the lead instead. Acting like an alpha had become a force of habit to him.

He began to tread down the stairs at a slow pace, being precautious in his steps. The arc reactor illuminated the space around them. He reached the bottom of the stairs and noticed a long, underground tunnel stretched out before them. The darkness consumed the tunnel and it was difficult to see the end of it or determine how long it may be. He was curious as to how the cat got stuck down here. It couldn’t have pulled on the switch to open the wall by itself. There was a possibility that Castello’s attackers were down here and they were walking into a trap. Either way, he was used to taking risks and he needed to figure out any information on Hydra that could be stowed away here.

He treaded slowly, keeping his footsteps light as to not make any sounds. Natasha matched his pace, walking just behind him.

“I have a question. You don’t have to answer of course.”

“I won’t if I don’t like it.” Was her dry response.

Tony curiously looked behind his shoulder. “Have you ever been with anyone else since you met your soulmate?”

“No. I’m not even attracted to other people anymore, haven’t been since then.”

“What do you do when you get lonely?”

Natasha gave the weapons dealer a pointed look. “This kind of job wasn’t made for companionship Stark.”

“Don’t you think people like us deserve to be happy too?”

The red head raised her eyebrows. “That kind of thinking gets you killed. You already know this. That’s why you and Pepper didn’t work out. Maybe in another life, we could’ve been happy but not this one.”

Tony smirked. “I don’t believe in reincarnation.”

“Aren’t you a futurist? I don’t think you’re allowed to be close-minded.”

“Not close-minded, I just look at everything from a scientific perspective. If it doesn’t make sense, then it’s shit.”

Natasha didn't give a response to that and he let the conversation end there.

They reached the end of the tunnel and stopped in front of the large steel door before them. 

There was no handle, doorknob, turn-wheel, or anything defining that could be used to open the door.

“Allow me.” Natasha stepped forward and attached a small device, shaped as a small quarter, to the side of the door.

The device released a burst of high-voltage electric currents that released the hold on the door and unlocked the latch.

“Hmm, I wonder who designed that.” Tony said sarcastically. He designed it, of course.

Natasha just rolled her eyes and pushed open the door the rest of the way. The room they walked into was an unforeseen sight to say the least. It definitely wasn’t what they expected to see in a single-family home at the center of a suburban neighborhood in New Jersey. 

The room was expansive and the brick walls were the same dull gray as the concrete floors. The open floor was filled with computer monitors and external hard drives that were probably manufactured back during his drug experimenting days. He hadn’t seen computers that old since he took over the company. 

Natasha stepped into the room slowly. “What is all of this?”

“Some kind of mainframe…”

A computer screen blinked to life. It was placed on a desk that was centered on a platform. The image on the screen formed into coding that was shaped as a face.

“Agent Natalia Alianova Romanoff, daughter of Ivan Romanoff......age 29 yeras old…… Special Operative of SHIELD, Orientation: Omega, Alias, Black Widow. Anthony Edward Stark, son of Howard Stark….age 44 years old...….. CEO of Stark Industries, Orientation: Omega, Alias, Iron Man.”

“This is some kind of recording.” Natasha said as she observed the room.

“I am NOT a recording fräulein. I may not be the man I was when I was taken prisoner in 1945, but I am. You are standing in my brain.”

“It’s an artificially intelligent user interface.” Tony said, speaking to Natasha. He turned back to face the distorted image of the man on the screen. “Who are you?” 

“Dr. Arnim Zola, I was a scientist and engineer that worked for Hydra before, after, and during World War II. I personally worked alongside Johann Schmidt during his reign as The Red Skull. After being captured in 1945 and spending a few years as a prisoner, the American government offered me a position to work on Operation Paperclip alongside SHIELD. Hydra rebuilt itself within the United States government completely undetected.”

“How are you still alive?” Tony asked.

"In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, _that_ was worth saving. On 200,000 feet of databanks. I have never been more alive."

“What is Hydra planning?”

“Hydra has been working on developing a super serum that surpasses that of what Dr. Erskine created. We strive to create an immortal breed of super soldiers, ones who are faster and stronger than Captain Hydra and the Winter Soldier. We’ve used the same serum that Dr. Erskine and Howard Stark used and added gamma radiation.”

“So that’s why they’ve been dumping all those bodies.” He suspected.

“Well yes...we have yet to find anyone whose DNA is compatible with the serum. All of our previous subjects’ bodies rejected the serum and caused quite fatal side effects.”

Natasha intercepted. “What does Hydra plan on doing once they create these hybrid super soldiers?”

“We plan to create chaos, make the world give up their freedoms in order to gain its security. We’ll force the people to be subservient to us. And you, Anthony Stark, will be the key in helping us reach our objective.”

Tony was about to ask how did he fall into their nefarious plot when he realized that Zola was stalling. 

He heard a whistling of an object flying through the air right as he felt immense pain in his lower back. A bullet pierced through his underarmor and flesh and left a white, hot pain. He fell to the ground on his knees before he slumped back and his backside met the cold concrete floor. Tears began to pour down his face as he tried to reach behind him to grab at the searing flesh but was unable to move.

Tony looked up to see two dark figures standing over him, their alpha scents overpowering him. The dim lighting allowed him to make out the faces of the Winter Soldier and Captain Hydra. This time, neither of them had their helmets or masks on, and Tony was exposed to them without his armor. For the first time, they could see his face, and Tony could see theirs. His sight focused in on the man holding the shield and locked eyes with him. It happened simultaneously. Tony and Captain Hydra sucked in a deep breath altogether, as soon as their eyes met.

It was an overwhelming sense of devotion, passion, and yearning that he felt for the man standing before him. He felt bewildered. Tony understood what was happening in that moment. He read about if a few times and was taught the history of it in grade school. He was confounded by the possibilities of it happening. The odds of him ever meeting this man should have been non-existent. If Captain Hydra was the man who he thought he was, then him being here, in this timeline, in close age range, it shouldn’t be possible. He was sure it was the same man in the photos with Howard and Aunt Peggy. What he couldn’t understand was how he was still alive, and why was he working for Hydra? 

Even moreso, how the fuck was he his soulmate?

Tony felt a small sting on the side of his neck, very close to his pulse. Even his body had realized what happened. His bond gland swelled, waiting for his mate to bite it and complete the bond.

“Bucky, take care of Black Widow. I’ll take care of Stark.” 

The Winter Soldier...Bucky, just nodded and walked through the maze of monitors, searching for Natasha.

He coughed up blood that was beginning to pool in his mouth. Tony looked towards an old filing cabinet, where he knew Natasha was patiently awaiting the right moment. He could faintly make out her red hair in the darkness. The color of her tresses eerily looked like blood in the darkness of the shadows. He wanted to tell her to leave, run, get away. She wouldn’t be able to take the two of them by herself. 

Captain Hydra crouched down beside him and gave him an odd look.

“You should’ve stayed away Stark.” Tony suspected disappointment in the voice of the man who used to be called Captain America. Tony assessed the man as his gloved hand reached towards his face. 

Before the fingers could connect with his skin, a smoke bomb hit the floor, next to Captain Hydra’s combat boots. Tony turned his head away from the smoke to try to keep the fumes from entering his airways. He was unable to cover his nose and mouth but Captain Hydra kicked the bomb away before the fumes could affect him.

He heard a scuffle in the distance.

“I got her Cap!”

“Alright, leave her here. We just needed to capture Iron Man. Let’s head back.”

Captain Hydra scooped Tony up in his arms, bridal style, being gentle as he gathered the injured man securely in his hold.

As Captain Hydra...Steve Rogers, turned around to leave, Tony saw Natasha lying on the ground, twitching in pain. It looked as if some kind of shock device was wrapped around her wrists and ankles. They walked back through the tunnel and up the stairs. He watched the cat run out the hidden door that was left open. Captain Hydr--Rogers, shifted Tony in his arms and Tony winced before his eyelids shifted close and he passed out.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has multiple POVs and it's a bit short. Also, want to inform you all, since this story takes place in 2014, Peter is technically supposed to be 13 yrs old, according to the MCU timeline, but I made him a year older, so he's fourteen instead of thirteen.

** TONY'S POV **

There was a throbbing heat coming from the side of his sore neck, right where his bond gland was. His head was slumped forward, chin resting on his collarbone. Tony woke up in a poorly lit room, with concrete walls surrounding him. He sat in a chair with his hands and feet restrained with metal bindings. The door he faced was ominous, with a very tiny window placed high on the door. His head hurt, his back was _killing_ him and he felt very dizzy. He noticed he was still in his underarmor suit but his nanobite housing unit was gone. His kidnappers at least had the morality to leave his arc reactor in his chest but he couldn’t access Jarvis. It didn’t seem like he was bleeding anymore and it felt as if his bullet wound had tight bandaging on it. He tried pulling on his restraints and noticed that he could move again, but the bindings wouldn’t budge. He sat there for a while, not sure for how many minutes or hours since there was no way to view the time. The only way out was through the door in front of him, even the opening to the vents were too small to crawl through. He had to escape through the door if he could find a way to get out of his restraints.

He heard heavy footsteps approaching, somebody most likely wearing steel-toe combat boots because nobody was that heavy-footed. The door opened slowly and the Winter Soldier walked in. This time there was no mask partially covering his face. He revealed himself to Tony, his expression was callous.

“I’m guessing you’re not here to set me free or offer me some food. Either would do but I’m really hungry so if you got some snacks in your pocket or something…”

The Winter Soldier’s expression did not change. He just glared at Tony with his arms crossed.

“Why do you keep showing up where you’re not wanted Stark?”

Tony minimally tilted his head to the side. “You know me?”

“Captain Hydra told me who you are.”

Tony nodded his head in realization. “Why didn’t he kill me?”

Bucky shrugged his shoulders. “We had orders to keep you alive, not sure why though.”

Tony glared at his captor. “Okay, then why the fuck did he shoot me?”

Bucky then stepped forward with inhuman speed. He gripped Tony by his short, brown tufts of hair and snarled into the restrained man’s face.

“ _I_ shot you. You’ve been bringing a lot of unwanted attention to us. If it was up to _me_ , you would be dead already.”

“Well you need to work on your aim buddy, because you almost shot my spinal cord-”

Bucky slapped Tony across the face with his metal hand, which Tony was quite impressed with might he add. The mechanical arm had a sleek design, quite similar to his suit.

He sucked in a long breath, trying to stabilize himself and hoping his vision would stop spinning.

“ _Fuck,_ that hurt. What’s that thing made of?”

“You don’t shut up do you?” Bucky hit him again with the same arm, then grabbed Tony by the back of his head and slammed the man’s face into his knee. 

“Why have you been following us?” Bucky released his grip and backed away, then started to slowly pace the floor in front of Tony.

“Ugh!” Tony turned his head away and tried to wipe some of the blood pouring from his nose on his shoulder. “I wasn’t necessarily following you guys, just happened to be at the same place at the same time.”

Bucky lurched forward and slammed his fist into Tony’s abdomen, using his human arm. With the amount of strength he had, it caused Tony to cough up more blood.

“You might want to go a bit easy there if you’re supposed to keep me alive.” Tony forced out in a raspy voice.

“You better hope I don’t accidentally kill you.” Bucky said as he walked around his chair and stood behind the restrained man. Tony was abruptly jolted in his chair as it was dragged backwards. The metal legs of the chair made a horrible grating sound while scraping against the concrete flooring. 

Tony didn’t have to spend too much time wondering what the Winter Soldier had in plan for him. The chair came to a halt as the back of it hit an object and the Hydra agent propped the chair back on whatever it was. Then he heard the evident sound of water pouring out of a faucet. His abuser yanked the chair to the side and inclined the chair all the way back, until Tony’s face was directly under the running water. He was assaulted by the abundant stream of cold water consistently splashing into his airways. He spluttered and coughed uncontrollably as he tried to force the water from his mouth. As he fought to keep from breathing in the water, he thought of Romanoff, wondering if the woman survived the explosion.

  
  
  


**NATASHA'S POV**

TWO HOURS BEFORE 

“NO!” Natasha jolted awake in a panicked frenzy.

She panted softly as she sat up and took in her surroundings. She was sitting on a tiny cot that was placed low on the floor. She looked around and saw obsidian colored walls and a row of parachutes strapped to the wall in front of her. She was on the quinjet, and based on the constant turbulence that was causing her to loosely grip the sides of the cot, she determined they were currently in the air.

She dreamed of her mate again. But, different from her other dreams, she saw Captain Hydra in it. In her dream, Natasha stood before the two of them in an open field, with the night sky suspended in the background. The fearless Captain glowered at her while he silently whispered into her mate’s ear but Natasha kept her eyes on James, waiting to see what he would do. Her mate returned her gaze, passively, until the Captain stepped back from her mate’s side. At breakneck speed, the Winter Soldier lurched forward and used his metal arm to seize her by her throat.

That’s when she woke up screaming.

She placed her head between her knees and groaned. She could feel a migraine coming on, the hammering pain lightly creeping through her nerves in her brain. 

“Medical said you have a minor concussion, so you might want to take it easy.”

She slowly lifted her head, trying not to aggravate the pain from her migraine. Clint was standing in the cargo bay, leaning on his crutches, a tired smile was planted on his face.

She mirrored his smile and lifted herself from the tiny cot. “How’d you find me?”

Clint gave her a concerned look. “You sent an S.O.S message. You don’t remember?”

She tried focusing on the past events, leading up to her waking up on the cot. For a moment, her memories were blurry as she closed her eyes and pictured herself fighting the Winter Soldier. Then, the images became more clear.

_“Self-destruct initiated….twenty….nineteen….eighteen….seventeen-” Arnim Zola’s robotic voice echoed through the room._

_Natasha writhed on the floor in pain. Captain Hydra left with Tony in his arms and her mate just walked away with them, leaving her on the concrete floor to die. She had to get up and run or she was going to be blown up into tiny pieces. The mainframes started sparking with fire as Zola continued to countdown._

_She squirmed and bent her knees before placing her elbow on the ground to push herself into a sitting position. Then she rocked forward and jumped onto the balls of her feet. With her hands tied behind her back, and her feet restrained, she was forced to hop back through the tunnel._

_“Twelve….eleven….ten….nine….eight….seven….”_

_She tripped halfway through the tunnel and tumbled to the ground. Zola continued to taunt her as he counted down to zero. She tried inching further away from the mainframe lab, using her chest and knees to move her body. She had to hope that the bomb wasn’t large enough to level the house, that maybe she can at least get to the end of the tunnel._

_“Two….One.” She curled into a ball, with her forehead touching her knees. The lab exploded and flames licked at her boots and legs. She was hurled into the air before her body smashed into the wall at the end of the tunnel._

_The restraints on her wrists split and broke apart when her backbone landed on top of her hands. She removed the shock restraints from her ankles. Afterwards, she quickly scoured her fingers through her locks to check for any blood or bumps after knocking her head into the wall. It checked out fine._

_She plucked out a pager from inside her bra and sent an SOS. message to Clint. SHIELD created the pagers with a tracking device, so she didn’t worry about them having trouble finding her location, but she was worried about her physical condition. Although it didn’t seem that she had any external injuries on her head, her brain felt as if it was drumming against her skull, and she began to feel dizzy._

_It wasn’t until she tried to place a hand on the wall and pull herself up, that she blacked out._

“I remember now. Did you find Stark?”

“No… was he with you when the explosion happened?”

“Hydra kidnapped him before the bomb was activated, we need to find him now. Where is Fury?”

“He’s in the cockpit, why were you two at Castello’s house?”

Natasha didn’t have time to answer all of her comrade's questions. She swiftly walked past Clint and rushed to the cockpit. Agent Hill was piloting the quinjet and Fury stood next to her.

She placed a hand against the frame after a rush of light-headedness passed through her.

“Romanoff, glad to see you awake. We had to call a medical team in to make sure you weren’t dying. Clint had a difficult time trying to wake you up.” Hill said.

“Stark is in trouble. The Winter Soldier and Captain Hydra took him. We don’t have much time before we completely loose their trail. We may still be able to track them if we access traffic camera footage. They may have even left tire tracks at the scene. We need to send an investigation team to the scene of the crime.”

“Woah, woah, slow down Agent Romanoff. We already have a team there investigating the victim’s death and looking for any other Hydra evidence.”

“That’s not important right now, our main focus needs to be finding Stark! We need every agent working on finding him.” Natasha exclaimed frantically.

“Why are you so concerned about Stark? Iron Man can certainly hold his own.” Fury asked with a trace of suspicion in his tone.

She looked Director Fury straight in his eyes, expressing desperation in her tone as she said, “because Hydra plans to use him to create weapons of mass destruction.”

“What, like nuclear bombs?” Clint chimed in.

“No, something much worse. If they succeed, nothing we do can stop Hydra from destroying humanity.”

  
  
  


** TONY’S POV **

The burning pain in his lungs still hadn’t eased away after the waterboarding method that The Winter Soldier used on him. The Hydra agent continued his onslaught of torture longer than he had expected him to. The Hydra assassin beat Tony until he couldn’t talk anymore, eyes swollen, and dripping blood from his nose and mouth with his head slumped forward. He was barely conscious. 

Tony heard the heavy door creek open, another set of footsteps walking through. His entire body hurt and he didn’t have the energy to look up and see who it was.

“Did he tell you anything Buck?” Tony heard the deep, gruff tone come from their new visitor.

“Nah, he spent two hours being a smart-ass.”

“Looks like you did quite a number on him.” The man whose voice sounded familiar, kneeled down in front of Tony. He placed a finger under Tony’s chin and lifted his face. It was Captain Amer--Captain Hydra. When would his brain stop trying to unconsciously call the man Captain America?

Tony saw a brief flash of empathy in the man’s bright azure eyes before they hardened and went back to his usual apathetic gaze as he looked at his friend. “At least he’s still conscious. But I think you overdid it. We were ordered to keep him alive.” He could hear the Captain’s poorly restrained frustration in his voice.

Bucky snorted as he crossed his large arms over his chest. “He still breathing ain’t he?”

“I’m going to take him back to medical.”

Captain Hydra stood up and walked behind Tony and moved to reach the restraints on his hands. He felt the alpha break the metal with amazing ease, then did the same with his ankle cuffs. Immediately after being released, Tony slumped forward and fell like a crumpled wrapper to the ground. He heard scrambling and felt gloved fingers gently placed themselves against the conjunction of his jaw and his neck, placing light pressure on his pulse.

“There’s barely a pulse. Dammit Bucky, he’s nearly dead! Get Dr. Harja in here now!”

For the second time in twenty-four hours, he passed out.

  
  
**PEPPER’S POV**

FOUR DAYS LATER 

It had been four days since Pepper tried to contact Tony and was unable to reach him. Jarvis was completely offline, which she didn’t understand how that was possible, and none of his colleagues have seen him since his disappearance. Rhodey contacted some people as well but they all said they didn’t know his whereabouts. She was preparing for her press conference that the Board asked her to set up. A makeup artist was adding a bit of blush to her face in a back room at the Stark Tower when a knock came at the door. 

“Yes?”

“It’s me Pep.”

She knew that voice. “Come in Rhodey.”

James Rhodes walked through the door in his usual uniform. She hadn’t expected him to appear today. 

She thought he was busy searching for Tony.

“I found some information about why Tony suddenly disappeared.”

She immediately waved away the stylist and straightened up in her chair. 

“He was kidnapped by some men working for a dangerous corporation. You might be familiar with them but I can’t speak to you about it in detail here.”

“Again? How many times is he going to let himself get kidnapped?” Pepper let her head fall into her hands, she didn’t want to ruin her makeup and certainly didn’t want to let Rhodey see her cry. As an alpha woman, she thought it was a sign of weakness to cry in front of others but she couldn’t help herself when it came to her beloved boss and friend. Rhodey placed a hand on her shoulder. He knew it would upset her when she heard the news. But at least she had some information to give the media. And it might help them find Tony. Pepper didn’t know about Iron Man or know that Tony was acquainted with the Avengers. She knew Tony was a contractor for SHIELD, providing them with new weapons and technology but she had no idea about Tony’s side job as an assassin. Rhodey didn’t think it was right to tell her, so he would just give her as little information as he could. Pepper could feel Rhodey using his Alpha pheromones to calm her. She grabbed a tissue and dabbed underneath her eyes. She sniffled a bit and thanked Rhodey, then checked her makeup before leaving the room. One of their many conference rooms was filled with reporters and upper-level staff members of Stark Industries. She cleared her throat before walking up to the podium, facing the flashing cameras and recorders.

“Thank you all for taking time from your day to be present here. As you may have heard, Tony Stark is missing. I just received news, minutes before, confirming that he has been kidnapped. Many of you may remember when he was kidnapped a few years before and feel a sense of worry. I do not doubt that Tony Stark will survive this. We currently do not have much information on who has kidnapped him or why but we are actively looking into it and will do our best to bring him back safely. If anyone may have information or witnessed the kidnapping, please do not hesitate to come to us. I will briefly answer a few questions.”

Many reporters raised their hands and Pepper answered a few questions before leaving the stage. She met Rhodey back in the dressing room. She swung her handbag onto her arm and spun to fiercely stare her alpha friend in the eyes.

“We’re going to go up to Tony’s penthouse, you’re going to get Director Fury on the phone, and the both of you are going to tell me _everything_ you know.”

Tony’s closest and longest friend didn’t dare object to the woman’s demands. He knew from the stories that Tony told him about Pepper and from his own observations, she was not the kind of alpha you wanted to cross.

  
  
  
  



End file.
